The creator of gonzo journalism, a prominent, heroic and outstanding author always seemed ahead of his time within the media and politics.

He was always too truthful in his style of journalism and was not afraid or ashamed. He began as a sports reporter but blossomed into one of the best writers in America. He was an outward critic of President Nixon, who seems to be somewhat of a president like the one we have today. He challenged the system and how things were in sometimes a radical way, especially for the times. He pushed the boundaries as much as he could and challenged societal norms, journalism, and politics in their entirety.

An outsider of the times perhaps, but an interesting, and honest writer that showed his disdain and concern for the American dream and democracy.

Interestingly enough, many have claimed there could be another Watergate-like scandal with Trump, or Trump has also claimed there are Watergate scandals going around, such as Trump has compared Obama-era uranium deal with Russia to Watergate. So Nixon and Trump are comparable in ways, at least however seemingly.

When looking through what Hunter S. Thompson has said and written over his years, there are many similarities in politics, journalism, and life that reflect democracy, politics, journalism, and life in America today.

Society

1.“In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

2. “Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.”

3. “I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”

4. “We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.”

5. “The mind of America is seized by a fatal dry rot - and it's only a question of time before all that the mind controls will run amuck in a frenzy of stupid, impotent fear.

6. “America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

7. “The only thing wrong with the NBA - or any other professional sport, for that matter - is a wild epidemic of Dumbness and overweening Greed. There is no Mystery about it, and no need to change any rules.”

8. “Justice is expensive in America. There are no Free Passes... You might want to remember this, the next time you get careless and blow off a few Parking Tickets. They will come back to haunt you the next time you see a Cop car in your rear-view mirror.”

Journalism Standards

9. “As far as I'm concerned, it's a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.”

10. “The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”

11. “Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.”

12. “If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”

13. “So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here--not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

14. “The only thing I ever saw that came close to Objective Journalism was a closed-circuit TV setup that watched shoplifters in the General Store at Woody Creek, Colorado.”

Democracy and Politics Today

15. “Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.”

16. ” I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.”

17. “Freedom is something that dies unless it's used.”

18. “All the blood is drained out of democracy - it dies - when only half the population votes.”

19. “Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.”

20. “Politics is the art of controlling your environment.”

21. “The root assumption here is that neither party would nominate a man more than 20 percent different from the type of person most Americans consider basically right and acceptable. Which almost always happens. There is no potentially serious candidate in either major party this year who couldn’t pass for the executive vice-president for mortgage loans in any hometown bank from Bangor to San Diego. "

22. “Every now and then you have to get away from that ugly Old Politics trip, or it will drive you to kicking the walls and hurling AR3's into the fireplace.”

23. “Liberalism itself has failed, and for a pretty good reason. It has been too often compromised by the people who represented it.”

24. “The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy—then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece.”

25. “The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand. It's come to the point where you almost can't run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip on each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.”

26. “A lot of blood has gone under the bridge since then, and we have all learned a hell of a lot about the realities of Politics in America. Even the politicians have learned – but, as usual, the politicians are much slower than the people they want to lead.”

Sub "Trump" for "Nixon". . .

27. “Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.”

28. “Nixon was a bad loser. He hated losing worse than death, and that is why I enjoyed him. We were both football fans, both addicts; and on some days, nothing else mattered.”

29. “Richard Nixon was an evil man - evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency.”

30. “The trouble with Nixon is that he's a serious politics junkie. He's totally hooked and like any other junkie, he's a bummer to have around, especially as President.”

31. “Richard Nixon was a criminally insane Monster - Bill Clinton is a black-hearted Swine of a friend.”

32. “Nixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.”

Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

And here’s two more, if only to maybe provide some hope to everyone from one of the greatest patriots of hope, a critic of politics and democracy, and advocate of the American dream.

34. “Live steady. Don't fuck around. Give anything weird a wide berth -- including people. It's not worth it. I learned this the hard way, through brutal overindulgence. "

35. “Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.”