Dinesh D’Souza
Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza contends American politics are at their most combustible since just before the Civil War, and he says President Trump must lead the effort to destroy “plantation politics” and end the practice of using the power of government to punish political enemies.
D’Souza latest film, “Death of A Nation,” which opens Aug. 3, contends one of the greatest dangers Americans now face is the Democrats’ weaponization of government to exact political punishment on their enemies.
He believes that’s the reason for the increased polarization in the U.S. and why he received a much harsher sentence for campaign finance violations than most other people.
“I attribute this mainly to the gangster-ization of the Democratic Party. If I can cite my own case as an example. I was charged by the Obama administration for exceeding campaign finance laws. They threw the weight of the federal government against me,” he said.
“Jimmy Carter would not have done that. That was the old Democratic Party. But under Obama and under Hillary, you had this turn in which the weapons of the state are used against political opponents. There’s no way to compromise with that. It’s not like we can have a middle position on that. We actually have to just stop it,” said D’Souza.
He says that’s the same conclusion President Abraham Lincoln reached more than 150 years ago when he said he would rather die than give up the election mandate to end slavery.
The Trump campaign is also a denunciation of what D’Souza calls plantation politics, which he says started as “an ethnic scheme” to keep black people in complete dependence.
He says that while slavery has been abolished, Democrats still have the same mindset towards blacks, Latinos and others.
‘The Democrats identify an ethnic group and they say, ‘We’re not going to campaign for your votes as individuals. We want your votes collectively, and we’re going to create an institutional dependency and inter-generational dependency on the Democratic Party. You’ll never get out of poverty, but we’ll take care of you forever and in exchange, you’ll agree to vote for us,'” said D’Souza.
Listen to Greg Corombos’ interview with Dinesh D’Souza:
D’Souza says Democrats like to argue that the two parties have switched roles on race and other issues since Lincoln’s day, but Lincoln argued people have the right to keep the fruit of their labor, and more than 150 years later, “the Republican Party stands for keeping the fruits of your labor” and the Democratic Party “stands for wealth confiscation.”
“Not a whole lot has changed,” said D’Souza.
He noted his “Death of a Nation” project was well underway before Trump’s decision to pardon him earlier this year.
D’Souza says he’s grateful to have basic rights again such as voting and ownership of a firearm, but he says there are much deeper blessings.
“I feel in a broader sense that there’s lifted a cloud. It has taken this ‘felon’ badge that the left was trying to hang around my neck. It’s lifted that. It’s given me my full American dream back, so for that I’m both exhilarated and grateful,” he said.