How could we possibly get a non arrested Timothy Leary to win the democratic primary for Governor of California in 1970 and than defeat Ronald Reagan to win the governorship ?
He doesn't become a prophet for drug use and counter culture and instead builds support among the growing liberal viewpoint of college students and galvanizes their need for change in a political rather than cultural way. Counter culture just wasn't interested in voting, choosing to leave THAT world behind. As long as Leary is labeled a druggie and hippy, he isn't beating Reagan.How could we possibly get a non arrested Timothy Leary to win the democratic primary for Governor of California in 1970 and than defeat Ronald Reagan to win the governorship ?
Soon after the opening of the embassy Timothy Leary, the high priest of LSD (‘turn on, tune in, drop out’), and his wife arrived in town. Leary had been sprung from a US prison by the Weather Underground, who’d been paid $25,000 (some say $50,000) by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a California hippy group that manufactured and distributed high-grade marijuana and LSD. Nixon had called Leary ‘the most dangerous man in America’. Cleaver and I gave Slimane Hoffman a toned-down version of Leary’s story, emphasising his career as a Harvard professor. Cleaver assured Hoffman that he was capable of controlling Leary’s drug use and his bouts of nonsensical eloquence. The commandant wished us well.
My first impression was that the Learys were elderly hipsters. I don’t know what I expected: something crazier, more flamboyant and exciting. In the name of the revolution Cleaver decided that Leary had to denounce drugs, and Leary agreed to take part in a BPP film session aimed at US audiences. Cleaver opened the interview by saying that the idea that drugs were a way to liberation was an invention by ‘illusionary guys’: the real path was through organisations like the Weathermen and the BPP who were involved in direct action. Leary’s reply was cagey. ‘If taking any drug postpones for ten minutes the revolution, the liberation of our sisters and brothers, our comrades, then taking drugs must be postponed for ten minutes … However, if one hundred FBI agents agreed to take LSD, thirty would certainly drop out.’