Democratic Primaries

the HBO series based on Philip Roth's trenchant 2004 novel of the same name (about an alternative history in which Charles Lindberg, with his America First movement, actually does win the 1940 presidential election), you would have seen this completely prescient scene:

Lindbergh holds these rallies all over the country, in which all he does is basically repeat the same line over and over again ("It's not Lindbergh against Roosevelt, it's Lindbergh against war" ). The main characters, an extended Jewish family in Newark, NJ, rail against his fascist tendencies and don't believe he can ever win over the general populace.

The scenes in question involve a rabbi (played by John Turturo) who is against the US entering the war and thus very pro-Lindbergh, who has been enlisted into the movement to give a speech endorsing Lindbergh at a big rally. As the family listens on the radio, they can't believe he would be suckered into such a thing, and proclaim that this is not going to get Jews to buy into voting for the creep, because they must certainly know Lindbergh's anti-Semitic tendencies.

A rebellious cousin explains to them the following: They're not using the rabbi to get the Jewish vote; they're using him to get the white Protestant vote (or something like that). It's a way of alleviating them of the burden of being considered anti-Semitic themselves so that they can vote for him. It's like a free pass for them.

I dropped off the sofa when I heard this line, because it encapsulated so perfectly what I felt about political candidates who use token minorities (blacks, women, etc.) but could never quite articulate. Getting a black celebrity or politician to endorse you or speak out at a rally is just what Roth so incisively explained in his novel: it's not about getting the black vote. It's about giving white people permission to vote for you despite your not attending to the real issues that affect black people.

That was Bernie Sanders's (and many other candidates') problem with black voters. They're like the fictional Jews who wouldn't vote for Lindbergh despite his flashing an articulate token rabbi around. They know.

At any rate, that show is amazing: beautifully shot, cast, and written.