Exactly what political climate allows men that use manipulation and the exploitation of prejudices to ascend to power? This is a question which is addressed in the novel Plot Against America by Philip Roth and the mockumentary Bob Roberts starring, directed by, and written by Tim Collins. These works of art explore the nature behind demagogues and populist candidates and how they rise to political prominence. Philip Roth’s fictional representation of Charles Lindbergh and Tim Collins fictional character Bob Roberts portray how Demagogues manage to seize power in free democracies. Democracies are unstable by their nature. Over the course of time, democracies constantly change according to the times and wills of the people. This is because
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In Plot Against America, Roth writes about a post depression America in which many people of different nationalities, religions, and ways of life were living together in equality. Roth writes that, “It was work that identified and distinguished our neighbors far more than religion. Nobody in the neighborhood had a beard or dressed in the antiquated Old World style or wore a skull-cap either outdoors or in the houses I routinely floated through” (Roth 3). He writes of a time in which women were beginning to take on roles traditionally held by men and a time in which the media has free reign to say whatever they believe. On the hand, Bob Roberts takes place in 1990, a time period not far removed from the present in which people are free to live how they want, free to practice what religion they want, and free to say whatever they want. However, despite the social freedoms of these societies, there is also a considerable amount of economic distress. In Plot Against America people are still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression and in 1990 people were still affected by the stock market collapse of 1987. It is during times like these where immense social freedoms and immense economic distress are both present that people begin looking to populist candidates rather than established …show more content…
Lindbergh did this by using his status as an american aviation hero to enchant his followers. During the republican convention, Lindbergh managed to break the deadlock in the contested convention by flying his plane into Philadelphia at 3:17 in the morning and waltzing onto the convention in his flying attire. This awe-inspiring demonstration provokes an impassioned enough response to win him the republican nomination, “at the sight of him, a surge of redemptive excitement brought the wilted conventioneers up onto their feet to cry “Lindy! Lindy! Lindy!” . . . at precisely four A.M. on Friday, June 18, the Republican Party, by acclamation, chose as its candidate the bigot who had denounced the Jews over the airwaves to a national audience as “other peoples” employing their enormous influence . . . to lead our country to destruction” (Roth 15). Lindbergh later campaigns with more spectacle by flying across the country in his plane and delivering speeches wherever he lands. When first announcing his campaign in California, Roth writes about how this spectacle was viewed upon by the american people, “it was as though the country hadn’t known the stock market crash and the miseries of the Depression (or the triumphs FDR, for that matter), as though even the war he was there to prevent us from
In Plot Against America, Roth writes about a post depression America in which many people of different nationalities, religions, and ways of life were living together in equality. Roth writes that, “It was work that identified and distinguished our neighbors far more than religion. Nobody in the neighborhood had a beard or dressed in the antiquated Old World style or wore a skull-cap either outdoors or in the houses I routinely floated through” (Roth 3). He writes of a time in which women were beginning to take on roles traditionally held by men and a time in which the media has free reign to say whatever they believe. On the hand, Bob Roberts takes place in 1990, a time period not far removed from the present in which people are free to live how they want, free to practice what religion they want, and free to say whatever they want. However, despite the social freedoms of these societies, there is also a considerable amount of economic distress. In Plot Against America people are still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression and in 1990 people were still affected by the stock market collapse of 1987. It is during times like these where immense social freedoms and immense economic distress are both present that people begin looking to populist candidates rather than established …show more content…
Lindbergh did this by using his status as an american aviation hero to enchant his followers. During the republican convention, Lindbergh managed to break the deadlock in the contested convention by flying his plane into Philadelphia at 3:17 in the morning and waltzing onto the convention in his flying attire. This awe-inspiring demonstration provokes an impassioned enough response to win him the republican nomination, “at the sight of him, a surge of redemptive excitement brought the wilted conventioneers up onto their feet to cry “Lindy! Lindy! Lindy!” . . . at precisely four A.M. on Friday, June 18, the Republican Party, by acclamation, chose as its candidate the bigot who had denounced the Jews over the airwaves to a national audience as “other peoples” employing their enormous influence . . . to lead our country to destruction” (Roth 15). Lindbergh later campaigns with more spectacle by flying across the country in his plane and delivering speeches wherever he lands. When first announcing his campaign in California, Roth writes about how this spectacle was viewed upon by the american people, “it was as though the country hadn’t known the stock market crash and the miseries of the Depression (or the triumphs FDR, for that matter), as though even the war he was there to prevent us from