It's a TV show, but I'm posting here because there is no /c/tv or something.
It's about Charles Lindburgh winning the 1940 election against FDR on an anti-war platform. Things slowly get worse for Jews in America during his presidency, which we see from the perspective of a Jewish family in New York. Lindburgh's supporters get more and more riled up against Jews,
Overall it's pretty good as a show, and the main character is kinda lefty but maybe just a radlib (voted for Debs in the past, but is extremely supportive of FDR). But the ending kinda goes full lib:
spoiler
It turns out that Lindburgh was being manipulated by Nazis who kidnapped his son (who died IRL), which kind of dismisses Lindburgh's anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathies as just being the result of blackmail.
Lindburgh refuses to straight up Holocaust the Jews ("you see, he wasn't that bad") in America. Instead he was trying to break up Jewish communities by forcing families to move to rural areas with no other Jews, where we see the KKK kill the mother of one such family. The Nazis get mad and demand he meet with them in Germany.
He does so without telling anyone leading to chaos at home. His VP, Burton K Wheeler, becomes acting president and turns out to be the real anti-Semite as he begins preparing and agitating for basically a Holocaust. He arrests some of Lindburgh's allies and forces Lindburgh's wife into the hospital claiming she had a breakdown.
And here's where it gets really lib
After she gets out of the hospital she goes on the radio and asks Congress to remove Wheeler and call a special presidential election (to coincide with the 1942 midterms). Congress does that and only that, as if the result of the new election will just calm down the newly activated anti-Semites and the emboldened KKK and everything will just go back to normal.
In the show the special election is Henry Ford (Linburgh's HUD secretary, in charge of the aforementioned breakup of Jewish communities and clearly shown in the show to be extremely anti-Semitic and racist) vs FDR (and Truman for some reason, half a term early). We are shown election day where everyone seems happy and hopeful, but we are also shown ballots being burned. The show ends not telling who wins.
The book it's based on however, tells who wins and what happens after:
FDR wins, everything goes completely back to normal, Pearl Harbor happens on schedule and history continues on from there exactly as in real life.
TL;DR but also the summation of my points
Basically, just like how libs think of Trump, Lindburgh is shown to be just be an anomaly and a puppet of a bad guy foreign nation, and despite things getting really bad and anti-Semitism being on the rise, all it takes is the right person getting elected for everything to go back to perfectly normal and history to continue on with America being the good guys in WWII once again.
but anyway, here's how I think the show should have gone
Lindburgh wins and is a full on Nazi sympathizer, after a couple years of pretending to be anti-war, America joins WWII on the Nazi side under some false pretense and the show becomes about radical Jewish resistance within Nazi America, leading to a completely changed timeline with America presumably being radically reorganized or just straight up balkanized
But I guess I expected too much from a bunch of lib writers.
Overall like a 7/10, decent idea, decent execution, not so great ending that doesn't fully dive into the implications of the changes of this alt timeline. A leftist rewrite could be pretty good. Could also be a fun HOI4 mod.
Edit: I left out a lot to focus more on the overall political situation, but really it focuses more on the single family (and to an extent the Jewish community around them) dealing with the whole thing. It might still be worth a watch even if you read my summary, if you're interested in the impact the political part of plot has on individuals, families, and communities.
I was hoping it was a dramatization of the Business Plot. I was kind of disappointed it was alt history. And yeah, it's one of those shows that only really got made because of Trump.
I was hoping it was a dramatization of the Business Plot. I was kind of disappointed it was alt history.
Honestly both together would be interesting. Alt history where the Business Plot goes through and is successful. Maybe focused on dramatizing the plot more but ending with everything just going to shit.
Smedley butler leading some kind of leftist/lib insurgency would be cool in this scenerio but maybe i just want a kaiserreich show (where the leftists win).
I don't have to watch it now... Very cool write up, in content and style. Good post!
Damn really? I thought I got kinda rambly tbh.
Like I said, 7/10 it might still be worth the watch. I left out a lot to focus more on the overall political situation, but really it focuses more on the single family (and to an extent the Jewish community around them) dealing with the whole thing.
No, complete sincerity. The perfect amount of depth. A solid review of the plot, analysis, what it could've been, how it relates to current events and topics... Insofar as a movie write up, very good. I just think that in the best way, I don't have to watch it. That's not a slight, it's a compliment. I genuinely appreciate your efforts and insight. :fidel-salute-big:
I watched it and thought the ending was really weird and abrupt, I guess because I was expecting more of what you said the rewrite should be.
wait wait wait was all that really in the show? i frickin watched it and uhhh thats not how i remember it.
spoiler
the baby bit & lindberg going to germany? didn't the main guy's bro help the canucks kill lindy or something?
you're right on with the dumb lib brain ending tho yughh lindbergh & fascism just go away and everythings fine
spoiler
His nephew was part of a plot to kill Lindburgh yeah, but after sitting at an anti-air gun or some shit for a bit, he gets a call that he's all done and can leave. It was basically a fake out to make you think maybe the plan was successful (but by one of the other co-conspirators) and leave you wondering what happened when all you hear is that his plane disappeared.
The part with his son and going to Germany was definitely highlighted less, but that's what's implied to have actually happened. The aunt dating the Lindburgh supporting rabbi talks about it when she's paranoid she'll get got by Wheeler.
I turn off ideology when watching Marvel stuff, I just want to enjoy it. It's basically the same as suspension of disbelief.
But this show is specifically political and ideological, so obviously that's not possible.
Oh it acknowledged that a lot of people in the US sucked like that, how do you think Lindburgh would have won the election.
But, like libs now, it assumes that electing someone else will make those people just sit down and be quiet.
But what kind of class makes you watch something that's behind a subscription service paywall?
