Death of a Nation

Al Gore did not invent the propaganda film. Fake-news flicks date back at least to The Birth of a Nation, the 1915 racist drama that conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza credits with revitalizing a nearly kaput Ku Klux Klan. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, screened the silent picture at the White House, D’Souza points out in his new documentary, Death of a Nation (rated PG-13 for thematic material and language).

As one-sided as Michael Moore, but more solemn, D’Souza aims to prove the political left’s favorite labels for President Donald Trump—“fascist” and “racist”—come closer to describing the political left. And always have. Drawing on historical records, interviews with academics, and material from two of his recent books, D’Souza explains that racism has existed at the Democratic Party’s core since its founding, and remains entrenched in progressive politics today.

The 20th century’s worst villains, D’Souza also alleges, took their cues from Democrats. For example, the Nazis modeled their exclusionary Nuremberg Laws on southern Democrats’ segregation policies. In fascism, the state tightly controls industry and commerce, and is the ultimate arbiter of the rights of individuals. D’Souza maintains the Democratic Party and its influential allies (Margaret Sanger, George Soros) have voiced similar principles.

“How do we fight the tyranny of the left?” D’Souza asks. Trump is not D’Souza’s savior. Rather, D’Souza expresses his answer through a short dramatization of the life of Sophie Scholl, whom the Nazis guillotined in 1943: It was her strong Christian faith that guided her anti-Hitler activities.

A gospel choir closes the film with the final verse of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”: “Christ … died to make men holy / Let us live to make men free.”