A few days ago, the trailer for the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America dropped, which I didn’t know was being made, though it isn’t all that surprising. For those of y’all that don’t know, The Plot Against America is based on a 2005 alternate history novel by Philip Roth which tells the story of a young Philip Roth (yes, he inserts himself in the novel) as he witnesses the rise of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh to the presidency in 1940. Of course, Lindbergh’s campaign is based on keeping the United States out of World War II – or, as Lindbergh put it in the novel (and was seen in the trailer), “Your choice is not between Charles Lindbergh and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but between Charles Lindbergh and war.”
In the novel, Lindbergh arrives at the 1940 Republican National Convention on the last night and manages to pull off a corrupt deal where he becomes the nominee. He then proceeds to barnstorm across the country, going to little towns, not only in the Midwest which formed the backbone of the America First Committee, but also throughout the Mountain West and even Dixie, which in Roth’s timeline actually becomes Republican decades earlier than it did in our timeline. Predictably, his success coincides with the rise of antisemitism, which eventually boils over after he’s elected president. There is even a program started to “Americanize” young Jews, where they are sent to rural areas to learn how tasty pork is. No, I’m not kidding.
And, I’m excited for it! No, not the miniseries itself, which while looks to be well made and acted, will still, by all likelihood, be every bit of the libelous attack on those who opposed America’s entry into World War II as the book was. No, I’m excited about it because of the effect I think this could have on average conservatives. I worry more about this stuff when it’s about slavery or George Wallace because outfits like Prager U have convinced far too many people that by virtue of historical Southerners being Democrats, men like the fire eaters and George Wallace were ackchyually liberal Democrats of today. Back when Obama announced plans to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the twenty dollar bill, I actually saw posts from people opining on how stupid Obama was because he didn’t know that Harriet Tubman was a gun-toting Republican and Andrew Jackson was a slave owning Democrat.
The insanity of that position aside, keep in mind they can’t do that with The Plot Against America. Lindbergh runs as a Republican and when the show demonizes him for proclaiming “America First!” – normal, everyday conservatives will know this is something Trump has said and will correctly see this as an attempt to disparage Trump. Moreover, The Plot Against America is seething with its hatred of Christians (especially Catholics), rural people, Midwesterners, and Dixians. One character, Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, is a powerful rabbi in Newark, New Jersey, but originally hails from Charleston, South Carolina and sports one of the thickest aristocratic Charlestonian accents I’ve ever heard. He is also a staunch supporter of Lindbergh and helps ease Jewish fears about him during the campaign. There is no way this will be missed by Heritage America. And, this time conservative viewers don’t have “Oh those where Democrats, we’re not like that” as cover, as was the case in Django Unchained.
They will see a very thin representation of Donald Trump, a man, for right or wrong, they think is on their side and being caricatured as a pawn of Adolf Hitler. They will see the rural life many of them hold dear being called a breeding ground for fascism. They will see Jews being shipped off to what is today the “Red States” to learn to be good Americans. They will see the Christian religion mocked as a bunch of idiot rubes and anti-semites. And, clinging to the Republican Party won’t help because they get it on the nose too.
If this was coming out in 2005, I would worry more about it. Back then, all of the mainstream conservative media was engaged in a ridiculous propaganda campaign to convince conservatives that George Bush was Winston Churchill, Tony Blair was Franklin Roosevelt, Saddam Hussein was Adolf Hitler (or some similar combination) and all those that opposed the Iraq War, men like Pat Buchanan, Joseph Sobran, Samuel T. Francis, and even Robert Novack, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, were all actually antisemitic, closet liberals and akin to Neville Chamberlain. But, that is no longer the case in 2020. The election of Donald Trump and the rise of the Dissident Right shows that conservative support for foreign adventurism has severely waned and now normal, sane voters are more concerned with our own borders than they are with Iraq’s borders. For all that has happened in the past 15 years, this is one thing that gives me hope, and they are about to see it brutally attacked on HBO.
Maybe I’m being overly optimistic here, but I do see this backfiring on those who made it and backfiring badly. All the excesses of the Left, and seeing how much they really hate us, has been an eye-opening experience for many on the center-right. Remember, these people think abortion is great and rural people dying from opioid overdoses is hilarious. And, normies are about to see all that hatred broadcast on their televisions or streamed through their phones and tablets. In doing so, and God willing, it will push our people even more into a nationalist perspective.
Am I being overly optimistic? Possibly. But after seeing this trailer, it’s about to redpill some people.
-By Dixie Anon
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
The Stainless Banner is the flag of a people not of a religion!
And so was the Blood-Stained Banner …
The suspension of disbelief is totally obliterated by assuming the South would switch republican and back Lindbergh. Like why would Roth think that works as a plot narrative?