stone constituency

...his only asset was a good eye for the opening, and a good enough ear to pick up the distant rumble of a groundswell with nobody riding it.

<^>

There is nothing in McGovern's campaign, so far, to suggest that he understands this kind of thing. --------------  [Hunter Thompson excerpt-campaign '72] --------------- For all his integrity, he is still talking to the Politics of the Past.  He is still naïve enough to assume that anybody who is honest & intelligent -- with a good voting record on "the issues" -- is a natural man for the White House.

But this is stone bullshit.  There are only two ways to make it in big-time politics today:  One is to come on like a mean dinosaur, with a high-powered machine that scares the shit out of your entrenched opposition (like Daley or Nixon) . . . and the other is to tap the massive, frustrated energies of a mainly young, disillusioned electorate that has long since abandoned the idea that we all have a duty to vote.  This is like being told you have a duty to buy a new car, but you have to choose immediately between a Ford and a Chevy.

McGovern's failure to understand this is what brought people like Lindsay and McCarthy and Shirley Chisholm into the campaign.  They all sense an untouched constituency.  Chisholm's campaign manager, a sleek young pol from Kansas named Jerry Robinson, calls it the "Sleeping Giant vote."

"Nobody's reaching them," he said.  "We got a lot of people out there with nobody they think they can vote for."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...all that I want is

someone to take care of me

I'm not asking for love

just a little sympathy...

==============
{book excerpt:  Fear And Loathing:  On The Campaign Trail '72.  Hunter Thompson.  Copyright 1973.}
{song excerpt:  "Sugar Daddy" - written by Christine McVie.  Fleetwood Mac, 1975, Reprise.}

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