From one of the best books ever written on the political process, Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72:
Jesus! This gibberish could run on forever and even now I can see myself falling into the old trap that plagues every writer who gets sucked into this rotten business. You find yourself getting fascinated by the drifts and strange quirks of the game. Even now, before I've even finished this article, I can already feel the compulsion to start handicapping politics and primaries like it was all just another fat Sunday of pro football: Pick Pittsburgh by six points in the early game, get Dallas even with San Francisco later on . . . win one, lose one . . . then flip the dial and try to get ahead by conning somebody into taking Green Bay even against the Redskins.
After several weeks of this you no longer give a flying fuck who actually wins; the only thing that matters is the point-spread. You find yourself scratching crazily at the screen, pleading for somebody to rip the lungs out of that junkie bastard who just threw an interception and then didn't even pretend to tackle the pig who ran it back for the six points to beat the spread.
There is something perverse and perverted about dealing with life on this level. But on the other hand, it gets harder to convince yourself, once you start thinking about it, that it could possibly make any real difference to you if the 49ers win or lose . . . although every once in awhile you stumble into a situation where you find yourself really wanting some team to get stomped all over the field, severely beaten and humiliated . . .
Tags: Hunter S. Thompson, Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
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