I read Philip Roth’s brilliant novel a year or two back. It was incredibly shocking. It outlines the way a Fascist leader organises the Nazi take-over of America.
It can’t possibly happen here – surely?
Well it is happening. The way in which Trump has organised his fascist cult with their extreme nationalist policies mirrors Roth’s novel in many ways. We’re in for a rough time.
Detention centres (read concentration camps), side-lining of law, brutality, vengeance against all opposition, shutting down of protest, shutting down of media, taking over of schools and all Federal Facilities, stream of propaganda, hate speech and misinformation, plundering of the environment, allegiance with other despots – Putin, Jong-Un, Orban and Modi – trade wars, abandoning of allies, out of environmental agreements, disparaging of science, hypocritical use of religion, NATO and the UN abandoned – and over it all a gloating, smug orange face.
Worst of all – this is just what half of America really want!
The Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the Roth family during the Lindbergh presidency, as antisemitism becomes more acceptable in American life and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the novel follows his coming of age, as well as American politics.
Roth based his novel on the isolationist ideas espoused by Lindbergh in real life as a spokesman for the America First Committee,[1] and on his own experiences growing up in Newark, New Jersey. The novel received praise for the realism of its world and its treatment of topics such as antisemitism, trauma, and the perception of history. The novel depicts the Weequahic section of Newark which includes Weequahic High School from which Roth graduated. A miniseries adaptation of the novel aired on HBO in March 2020.
Buy the book and wonder.
Failing that there is a mini series! Should be available somewhere!
