This Trump documentary trilogy is a horror film in three parts

But the most damning assessments come from psychiatrists, for whom the need to warn the public about him has become an ethical question. In keeping with the 1969 Tarasoff Rule, which forces them to speak out if a patient might pose a danger to the public, they describe him variously as “mentally ill,” “malignant narcissist” and “incompetent.”

From different perspectives, NYU authoritarianism professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, psychiatrist Gartner, and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance each point out that Trump and Adolf Hitler belong to “the same psychological type.” Echoing the late Ivana Trump’s court testimony about her ex-husband’s penchant for reading transcripts of Hitler’s vile wrath, Nance suggests that Trump’s wild accusations, targeting of outsiders and constant repetitions are modeled on those of the Nazi dictator. “Repeat everything three times,” says Nance, “and the third time it becomes the truth.”

Ben-Ghiat also identifies a parallel between the current moment in U.S. politics and Mussolini’s rise to power in democratic Italy in 1919. “One of the most defining moments of authoritarian capture,” she says, “is when traditional elites invite the authoritarian elites .” in the making, to power.”

Until the second half of the year, Trump remains a largely background figure God + Countrywhich is co-produced by filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele (who coincidentally took the photo of Trump for the cover The art of the deal). But by this point, the film has already provided a revealing context for his appearance.

The title implies a mathematical equation: God + Country = the serious threat to democracy described in the film, a threat that arises from the rise of Christian nationalism, a multi-denominational body whose creed, as one Protestant clergyman puts it, is in it insists “America and Christianity are like baseball and apple pie, and we celebrate them together.”

Based on the book by Katherine Stewart: The Power Worshipers: In the Dangerous Rise of Religious NationalismThe film makes clear the problems inherent in this idea. Based on the insights of constitutional lawyer Andrew Seidel, who reminds us that the separation of church and state is a fundamental principle of the U.S. Constitution, the film makes it crystal clear why “there can be no religious freedom without government freedom from it. “Religion”.

Stewart, interviewed in the film, tells us that what unites Christian nationalists is “not theology but a particular political vision” that is almost exclusively white. And even if the movement represents only a small portion of the American population, minorities can wield significant power when voting is not compulsory. As Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Moral Majority, proudly puts it: “Our influence increases when the voting population decreases.”

The film makes it clear why Trump strategically and repeatedly refers to himself as “the chosen one.” And why those involved in the invasion of the Capitol building on January 6, 2020 carried a variety of religious artifacts. Perhaps the most disturbing sequence of all God + Country Cross-sections between the Proud Boys kneeling outside the building to pray and the Speaker of the House inside leading the gathering of those actually chosen by the people in the traditional prayers.

#Untruththe final film in the trilogy, suggests that while Trump is not irrelevant in all of this, he is, in the words of Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, “the result of something else happening.” , that’s much bigger.”

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The film points to a combination of factors that have led American democracy to the brink. The various forms of social media have created a climate of distrust of the government that goes far beyond the limits of healthy skepticism and has led to the widespread spread of disinformation. That’s how Ann Nelson, the author of Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Center of the Radical Rightemphasizes, is certainly not to be confused with information (factual, documented) or even misinformation (wrong, uninformed), but is intended to deliberately mislead.

Also guilty, #Untruth argues, is the machinery of the Murdoch media empire, with its self-serving mix of business and ideological agendas and the disappearance of local newspapers and with them “the connective tissue between governments and communities”.

Added to this are the failures of the Republican Party and its current presidential candidate. But perhaps even more important is an American public that, as former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele contends, must decide what is more important to it – “lower gas prices, lower inflation or the principles of democracy.”

While Partland’s powerful and compelling trilogy isn’t exactly a call to arms – a phrase that can lead to misinterpretation, especially in the current climate – it is first-rate agit-prop filmmaking.

Electricity #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump & #Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism on DocPlay and God + Country SBS on demand.

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