A Musing On D'Sousa's New Propaganda

I used to credit the South Dakota Republican establishment for controlling their extreme fringe. It seems those days have ended. South Dakota War College has posted that the Minnehaha County Republicans will host a showing of Dinesh D'Sousa's propaganda piece Death of a Nation.

The movie's title is a too obvious turn on Birth of a Nation, a silent film infamous for being sympathetic to the KKK. The film's poster merges Lincoln's and Trump's faces and implies that like Lincoln, Trump is uniquely able to save the union because both are opposed by Democrats. These comparisons are superficial. They ignore the fact that Lincoln was a man with virtues whereas Trump knows only excess. Lincoln was perhaps the nation's most eloquent President. As George Will has written, Trump "speaks English as though it is a second language that he learned from someone who learned English last week." Most importantly, Lincoln urged Americans to appeal to the better angels of our nature. Trump wants his followers to treat everyone who doesn't wear a MAGA hat as an enemy.

The film will no doubt claim that the conclusions it presents are historical fact. D'Sousa is to history what Satan is to truth. He claims, "the primary theme of the movie is racism and fascism," If this "theme" follows his other works, he will contend that Democrats are racists and assert as a new discovery that Southern Democrats were the party of slavery. Every high school American history book contains that fact, but why let facts get in the way of propaganda? 

What D'Sousa will ignore is that Dixiecrats and segregationists joined the Republican party in droves. Historian Kevin M. Kruse has provided a list that includes Strom Thurmond, John Tower, William C. Cramer, Iris Faircloth Blitch, James D. Martin, Bo Callaway and a host of others.

This propaganda piece will make it harder for the South Dakota GOP establishment to control its right fringe. It will instill or deepen the belief that one party has sole control of the truth and that those outside that party should be viewed with suspicion if not outright hatred. It will ignore the obvious fact that no party has a monopoly on truth.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic lately, so I'll close with a song from my youth. I admit it's cheesy, but it makes me feel a little better after thinking about hatemongers.