Hunter Stockton Thompson, July 18, 1937 (Louisville, Ky.) – February 20, 2005 (Woody Creek, Colo.)
VP candidate for Rhinoceros Party (aka Rhino Party aka Rhinoceros Party of Canada aka Rhinos of America aka Parti Rhinocéros) (1988)
Running mate with nominee: William Francis Lee III (b. 1946)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Former professional baseball player Bill "Spaceman" Lee was living in Canada ("I live in Canada because I've got a lot of plaid shirts") and playing with the semi-pros (some accounts have him living in Vermont too). He was also running for President of the United States as a member of the Rhinoceros Party. The Rhino Party was actually an absurdist organization satirizing Canadian politics (and there was a small American branch as well), but apparently they approached Lee and offered to nominate him for the US Presidency.
Lee told the press he wanted Hunter S. Thompson as his Vice-President: "Americans love their vice, and who knows more about vice in America than Hunter S. Thompson? We haven't heard from him, but we don't expect a reply within the first century."
Several years ago Lee reflected on his VP choice during an interview: "He really never responded, so we ad hoc put him on the ticket. I said, no one knows more about vice than Hunter Thompson, so he's the vice president. It's funny, we were probably politically opposite. He was kind of an anarchist, gun-toting ... I'm more of a socialist than a libertarian. I believe in the underdog. More Eugene Debs: 'If there’s a class lesser than I, I'm with him. If there's a man incarcerated, I'm not free.' I'm more that type of guy."
Lee on the issues in the 1988 election season:
The Designated Hitter rule is what's evil in America. It creates specialization. Ask any biologist or geneticist what the No. 1 cause of extinction is, and they come up with the same answer--overspecialization. Our whole society is pushing toward that direction.
If I was president, there'd be a law. You have to stay in shape. I'll give you a 10- to 15-pound grace limit. You're going to be monitored. The armed forces, their whole job is going to be taking these fat people off the street and putting them back in boot camp. Your wife is cooking dinner, expecting you to come home from work, and all of a sudden this unmarked van pulls up and absconds you. And you're not going to be seen for six or seven weeks. But when you come back, your wife's going to appreciate you. You'll be energetic. You won't be a couch potato.
Lee's campaign slogan was "No Guns. No Butter. Both Can Kill!": If the Democrats get into power, they believe in spending on the domestic budget, which is butter. Republicans, they all spend on the military budget. I'm afraid our whole way of life will collapse if there are no wars. We've still got to maintain that warlike philosophy, because people like a good battle. So we'll substitute sport for war.
My whole theory is based on Buckminster Fuller's--that the second law of thermodynamics doesn't exist. That nothing wears out. That there's enough to go around. You just have to constantly recycle it. Once people realize that there is enough to go around, there'd never be a war again. That's the concept. But you can't think of yourself first or the sovereignty of your nation first. You have to think of the world as a single unit. No matter how good we do individually, we will cease to exist as a species if the planet goes under.
People consider me radical, off the wall. But right here as we sit, we're traveling through space and time at a tremendous rate of speed. So, when you think about it, this planet is just a hanging curveball.
What do you do with the White House? I'd turn it into a Mexican restaurant. There are no good Mexican restaurants in Washington, D.C.
We don't believe in using chairs. They cause bad backs. We want an American public that can stand up for themselves.
My position on mandatory drug testing? I've tested mescaline. I've tested 'em all. But I don't think it should be mandatory.
Thompson had no involvement in the campaign. His book Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s was published that year (he predicted a Democratic Party loss in that election) and a documentary called Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die had also been produced in 1988.
Election history:
1970 - Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colo. (Freak Power Party) - defeated
Other occupations: US Air Force, security guard, journalist, author
Buried: Cremated, and ashes were fired from a cannon.
Notes:
Suicide by self-inflicted gunshot.
Supported George McGovern in 1972.
One of my college pals in the 1970s attended a Hunter S. Thompson lecture. During the speech a
bomb threat was made. Thompson informed the audience about the threat but said he was going to
continue anyway. My friend decided to stay and had the thought that, hey, I might die but at least I'll
die with Hunter S. Thompson.
