Author and film maker Dinesh D’Souza’s latest film opened nationwide last Thursday. It is a history lesson in two parts.

It starts with a short and somewhat creepy sequence of swirling cartoon representations of different Democrat politicians to the tune of “Happy Days are Here Again”. The movie then begins with a re-enactment of the sentencing phase of D’Souza’s trial for violation of campaign finance laws. This was the beginning of part one.

Yes, it’s true, Dinesh D’Souza had a friend who was running for office to whom he donated $20k. So far, so good, but he then had a third party donate another $20k which was reimbursed by D’Souza. He was charged with a felony. His lawyer said that this sort of case is common and that nobody suffers a felony and that he would get it reduced for him. After some time, his lawyer told him that the court was not budging, he could not get the charge reduced, and that somebody must really want to get him. This took place after the D’Souza movie 2016: Obama’s America which was critical of the president. He pleaded guilty to the felony and was sentenced to five years probation, eight months in a “community confinement center,” eight hours a week of community service during the probation, and a thirty thousand dollar fine. It was sort of a “Lite” version of G.Gordon Liddy’s sentence of 20 years in prison (commuted to eight years by President Carter) for a first offense breaking and entering where nothing was stolen—his punishment for not co-operating with Democrats after the Watergate fiasco.

After the courtroom scene, there was a humorous sequence showing his induction to the “community confinement center” and getting used to the company of hardened criminals. He began to learn about the criminal subculture which had been totally foreign to him. Through speaking with his fellow inmates, he distilled the four major aspects of the criminal enterprise: 1, Develop a plan; 2, Recruit; 3, Make the pitch; 4, If caught, always deny, never give up the con. He uses his newfound understanding of criminality as a framework for explaining the success and ultimate goal of the Democrat Party.

D’Souza dived back in history to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Democrat president who drove Native Americans off their land onto reservations, then sold the land cheaply to buy votes. The Republicans fought against the plan, but the Democrats got it passed. He proceeds through history to the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, big city political machines, Margaret Sanger, and finally debunking the claim that Republicans under Nixon decided to appeal to Southern racists and that is why black people turned to the Democrats after the racists in the party became Republicans. It was given the term, “The Southern Strategy.”

Unlike his movie 2016: Obama’s America, in which imitated Charles Kuralt traveling all over the world interviewing everybody, D’Souza used dramatic re-enactments to provide the cinematic imagery reifying the historical facts. The imagery was quite powerful because it was almost exclusively of individuals and their actions, which probably accounts for the PG-13 rating. Little time was wasted on sweeping scenes of landscapes and such, though there was a brief interview at a diner with Jonah Goldberg which was mildly interesting but seemed odd.

There was one particularly heart-wrenching scene in which a journalist named Ida B. Wells attempted to intervene at a lynching. Wells, like Harriet Tubman before her, was a gun toting Republican black woman. She devoted herself to ending the practices of lynching and segregation, mostly through her work as a reporter for a Republican newspaper. She was treated in the movie as one of the great heroes of yesteryear, reappearing a number of times toward the end of the film. The history lesson was part one.

Part two was a biography of Hillary Clinton. It began with her as a young woman and her association with Saul Alinsky (much of the material on Alinsky was drawn from a television interview he gave shortly before his death in 1972, it was revealing). Hillary Clinton’s story covered most of her misdeeds from the Whitewater scandal, to her husband’s victims, to the theft of money collected for Haitian earthquake relief. Many of the clips of Clinton can be sorted into one or more of the aspects of criminal enterprise.

The movie ends with an extended patriotic fanfare complete with fireworks, Civil War re-enactments, a choir, an orchestra, and the Blue Angels, that would touch the heart of all but the most jaded Americans.

This latest effort on the part of Dinesh D’Souza is a two part documentary that covers much of the dark side of American history. It is humorous at times, and occasionally hard to watch. Almost everyone will find one or two tidbits of information new to them. It flows well with pretty good production and acting for an indie film. However, if you are someone who would be greatly disturbed or offended by a bare knuckled criticism of Hillary Clinton and her party, you may want to give this one a pass.

Jonathan Hoffman is the Weekly’s resident libertarian columnist. 

This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2016.

Jonathan Hoffman moved to Tucson from Connecticut in 1977 and never looked back. He attended the UA, ran for City Council Ward III in 2001, and made regular contributions to the Guest Commentary section...

32 replies on “Review: Hillary’s America: the Secret History of the Democratic Party”

  1. Great review. Where is it playing? bare knuckles is what is needed in this country now more than ever.

  7. Dinesh D’Souza is a right wing propagandist that subscribed to the desperate attempts at smearing Obama and made a documentary to push that :

    1. He is born in Kenya

    2. He is a muslim

  8. Dick Morris was on the Clinton payroll for years. But she doesn’t have problems with bad decisions does she?

  9. Calling D’souza an historian is like calling Homer Simpson a gourmet restaurant critic. Just one tiny error of hundreds, THERE WERE NO REPUBLICANS EXISTING DURING ANDREW JACKSON’s term of office.

  11. And a blurb from the director of The Exorcist? You guys are hitting on all cylinders.

  12. Saw it today. OUTSTANDING!! Let the dislikes begin. Maybe one of the 90 chickenshits who do so will go see the movie, too.

  13. Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather drink beer with the chickenshits. D’Souza’s nothing but a propagandist, like Michael Moore. And a heavy-handed one at that, like Michael Moore. Sure doesn’t sound like a good time to me. Or an informative one.

  15. Thanks, Peabrain. I can always count on dead from the neck clowns like you who know how much I love dislikes, but hit them anyway. Bozos like you make it too easy. Funny how you needed almost an hour and a half between comments to get them all in.

  18. You’re welcome! As for the time between posts, that was what’s called living in the real world. ‘night, tiger.

  19. I don’t know what’s creepier, CW13; the fact that you actually keep a running tally of likes and dislikes, or that you’re trying to time-manage me.

  20. This review is as twisted and academically immature as your writing skills are. I will never get the hour and twenty-seven minutes or so of my life back. I wonder if a movie such as this revisited the Trump ticket from the REAL Republican ticket through the reason he feel being orange makes any sense whatsoever. You are an embarrassment to the Libertarian party as it sits.

  21. Well, that was earnest… It’s not really a crime if D’Souza does it and it’s not really not a crime if Clinton does it. Got it.

  23. D’Souza dived back in history??? “everyone will find one or two tidbits of information”??? That’s funny stuff there. Then again there may be some actual information but good luck separating the information from the bullshit.
    Hoffman, did you write this review on a bet? Are you OK? Are you being held somewhere against your will?

  24. Yeah, Peabrain. It takes someone with a big, brass pair like you to comment in a publication where 96.4% of the readers agree with you.

  25. Now it’s percentages? Gad, man, you are a creeper. Truth is, I don’t care who agrees with me with as long as I’m irritating a turd like you.

  27. So Dinesh debunked the Southern Strategy “myth?” Oh really? Here’s what a couple of people who were around then had to say.

    Baseball great Jackie Robinson, invited to the Convention by the office of Nelson Rockefeller, left horrified. Robinson said,
    That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people…A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

    Martin Luther King commented
    The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism. All people of goodwill viewed with alarm and concern the frenzied wedding at the Cow Palace of the KKK with the radical right. The “best man” at this ceremony was a senator whose voting record, philosophy, and program were anathema to all the hard-won achievements of the past decade.

  29. It’s fairly well accepted that MLK was a serial adulterer and not only changed his political affiliation from R to D midcourse but also his morals and values. He was shot on the porch of a cheap motel where he was committing adultery which, believe it or not, the Bible lists as those who “shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven.” It’s unfortunate how people glorify and admire others who cannot be faithful to their own families. I am the first to condemn the Hasterts of the world but the lack of moral compass or respect for Judeo Christian values is mostly a Liberal problem. You can’t Justify anger, pride, rebellion, deceit as anything other then sin. (You can in for a time in this life I suppose). IF this is at the heart of community organizing or BLM, it’s still sin and God will set everything straight. If you believe or live for eternity, Since we cannot know if He is ever on our side, we should work hard to be on His. I found the movie historically accurate yet occasionally corny in how it’s framed. It shouldn’t offend democrats to hear things that are fact, just bc they may presented in an exaggerated way. Really, the whole thing is hogwash? I would guess The most unbiased and researched would find the evidence, aside from the dramatic enhancements, at LEAST 70% accurate. Informative movie, but hey I can find at least some truth in a mm film.

  30. It’s fairly well accepted that MLK was a serial adulterer and not only changed his political affiliation from R to D midcourse but also his morals and values. He was shot on the porch of where he was committing adultery which, believe it or not, the Bible lists as those who “shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven.” It’s unfortunate how people glorify and admire others who cannot be faithful to their own families. I am the first to condemn the Hasterts of the world but the lack of moral compass or respect for Judeo Christian values is mostly a Liberal problem. You can’t Justify anger, pride, rebellion, deceit as anything other then sin. (You can in for a time in this life I suppose). IF this is at the heart of community organizing or BLM, it’s still sin and God will set everything straight. If you believe or live for eternity, Since we cannot know if He is ever on our side, we should work hard to be on His. I found the movie historically accurate yet occasionally corny in how it’s framed. It shouldn’t offend democrats to hear things that are fact, just bc they may presented in an exaggerated way. Really, the whole thing is hogwash? I would guess The most unbiased and researched would find the evidence, aside from the dramatic enhancements, at LEAST 70% accurate. Informative movie, but hey I can find at least some truth in a mm film.

  31. Jonathan Hoffman has given an unbiased review of this movie, which is certainly refreshing in today’s liberal-biased world. I applaud him, but would just like to correct him on one “fact”. He mentioned there was a “civil war reenactment” near the end of the movie. Look again! Although there was some civil war reenactment earlier in the movie, those characters in that scene near the end were wearing Revolutionary War uniforms and carrying a Stars and Stripes flag with 13 stars in a circle.

  32. Went to see it yesterday. This movie brought many facts to light that many will still deny, deny, deny. Still doesn’t change that the information is fact and part of history. It is something everyone should take time to see. Too bad it doesn’t air on TV.

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