The 1996 presidential election was one of the most incredible in history. In hindsight, the conditions were just right to catalyst such a change, Americans were sick of moderate politics that the past several decades had brought them and were ready for radical libertarian socialist policies. Economic inequality, the worst in generations, had radicalized the public to look for new electoral solutions for their problems.
Incumbent Vice President Bruce Babbitt was a safe, typical liberal for the Democrats to pick, few doubting that he would be the nominee. Selecting the slightly more right-wing Tennessee Jim Sasser as his running mate, Babbitt hoped that he could demonstrate that his was the way America should follow. The problem was that he was not popular enough, too tied up to the flaccid policies of the party to excite the people. He was the status quo and the people didn’t want that.
If the Democrats where disliked, the Republicans had it worse, unable to forge an inspiring opposition party. New York senator Jay Rockefeller practically bought his way to the top of the ticket, enforcing that he wasn’t the man of the public he desperately wanted to be. Not even selecting Mississippi governor Charles Evers, despite the historic possibility of the first Afro-American vice president, could excite people much beyond a handful of black Republicans.
The issue facing the Conservatives was their platform, pure and simple. Unpopular, far-right positions on practically every social and economic issue did not lead people to flock to them outside of Southern white evangelicals. Governor Carroll Campbell and Senator Virgil Goode where too easily decried as fascists, the American answer to the loathed Le Pen presidency in France.
Governor of Colorado Hunter S. Thompson of the Peace and Freedom Party was the man Americans were looking for, even if they might not have known it at first. Many dismissed him and running mate mayor Jello Biafra of San Francisco as kooks (they weren’t entirely wrong), but those that listened where pleasantly surprised to find thoughtful politics that emphasized an end to the hated wars overseas and an expansion of personal freedoms at home.
Hunter S. Thompson was inaugurated as America’s 42th president in January 1997, the first President from Colorado and the first president to be from the Peace and Freedom Party.
Incumbent Vice President Bruce Babbitt was a safe, typical liberal for the Democrats to pick, few doubting that he would be the nominee. Selecting the slightly more right-wing Tennessee Jim Sasser as his running mate, Babbitt hoped that he could demonstrate that his was the way America should follow. The problem was that he was not popular enough, too tied up to the flaccid policies of the party to excite the people. He was the status quo and the people didn’t want that.
If the Democrats where disliked, the Republicans had it worse, unable to forge an inspiring opposition party. New York senator Jay Rockefeller practically bought his way to the top of the ticket, enforcing that he wasn’t the man of the public he desperately wanted to be. Not even selecting Mississippi governor Charles Evers, despite the historic possibility of the first Afro-American vice president, could excite people much beyond a handful of black Republicans.
The issue facing the Conservatives was their platform, pure and simple. Unpopular, far-right positions on practically every social and economic issue did not lead people to flock to them outside of Southern white evangelicals. Governor Carroll Campbell and Senator Virgil Goode where too easily decried as fascists, the American answer to the loathed Le Pen presidency in France.
Governor of Colorado Hunter S. Thompson of the Peace and Freedom Party was the man Americans were looking for, even if they might not have known it at first. Many dismissed him and running mate mayor Jello Biafra of San Francisco as kooks (they weren’t entirely wrong), but those that listened where pleasantly surprised to find thoughtful politics that emphasized an end to the hated wars overseas and an expansion of personal freedoms at home.
Hunter S. Thompson was inaugurated as America’s 42th president in January 1997, the first President from Colorado and the first president to be from the Peace and Freedom Party.
Last edited: