Manchurian Candidate A classic Hollywood political thriller may tell us more about what's happening

[ribrepin]

The Manchurian President
Bill Moyers

As the Trump presidency unravels, unraveling the country along with it, there is no real political antecedent, no lessons from American history on which to draw and provide guidance. We are in entirely uncharted waters.

But there is an antecedent in our popular culture that provides a prism through which to view the contemporary calamity, especially the alleged collusion between Trump’s henchmen and Russian intelligence to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency. I am not the first observer who has noted the relevance of the movie The Manchurian Candidate. But the relevance is more than skin or celluloid deep. It goes to the very heart of this bizarre and frightening political moment.

First, the fact that this implausibly plotted Hollywood thriller could now be applied, not altogether implausibly, to a sitting American president demonstrates just how far off the rails this country has gone. Outlandish plots suddenly seem credible, and not just to conspiracy theorists.
It isn’t just the possibility that we had a Manchurian candidate for the presidency. It is the possibility that we now have a Manchurian president, a Manchurian Congress and a Manchurian government.

Second, and perhaps more significantly, the film demonstrates not only how much our narrative bearings have been lost but also our political and moral bearings, and how an admittedly paranoid movie may actually be insufficiently paranoid when it comes to our new reality. It isn’t just the possibility that we had a Manchurian candidate for the presidency. It is the possibility that we now have a Manchurian president, a Manchurian Congress and a Manchurian government.
http://billmoyers.com/story/the-manchurian-president/

[MANative]

1. I've been calling tRump "Manchurian Candidate" since May.

The resemblances are just NUTS!

[ribrepin]

3. Took me a lot longer to catch on - I just thought he was an asshole

But he does resemble the movie in ways this article explains. My kids keep asking if this resembles Watergate - no it doesn't. Watergate was a third rate burglary that they tried to cover up to escape embarrassment.

[MANative]

4. Completely agree on the Watergate comparison.

I was a youngish teenager then, but got politically aware because of that little debacle. I told someone on FB that what's going on now feels like bl*wing up a whole city in comparison to Watergate's swiping a pack of gum at the dime store.

[ronatchig]

2. Life imitates art

or so I was taught when I was young. At the time I called bullshit ,but, as time has gone forward, facts have dtrumped my earlier opinion.(Or is it dtrumped on my earlier lesson?)