Hillary's America; The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Santa Monica, CA: Lionsgate Entertainment Inc, 2016. Presumed First Edition, First production run. DVD. As new. This is in a a sleeve and the DVD is still in its original plastic. The sleeve is highly decorated packaging with the title on each thin side, like as if a spine on a book so the title is evident. The front image has the author and title and a striking image of Hillary amid a cheering throng. The back has the barcode opening, and text including Special Features: Extended Scenes, Extended Interviews, previously Deleted Scenes, and a Visual Effects Breakdown. Run time is approximately 107 minutes. Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is a 2016 American political documentary film about 2016 American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and a critique of the Democratic Party. The film is written and directed by political commentator Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley. The film had a limited release on July 15, 2016, before a wide release on July 22, 2016, and accompanies a book by D'Souza by the same name. The film was the top-grossing political documentary of 2016, grossing $13 million against a $5 million budget. Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (born April 25, 1961) is an Indian-American political commentator, author, and filmmaker. D'Souza has written over a dozen books, several of them New York Times best-sellers. In 2012, D'Souza released the documentary film 2016: Obama's America, an anti-Obama polemic based on his 2010 book The Roots of Obama's Rage; it earned $33 million, making it one of the highest-grossing documentaries. He has released four other documentary films: America: Imagine the World Without Her, Hillary's America, Death of a Nation, and Trump Card. The film begins with scenes of D'Souza at the halfway house where he spent time due to a conviction for making an illegal political contribution. The film then switches to examining and criticizing the history of the Democratic Party, from Andrew Jackson to the present day. D'Souza is portrayed going into a basement archive of the DNC Headquarters where he reveals secrets of the party's history. The film offers an interpretation of the origins of the Democratic Party in a brief outline, then examines the racism of one of its founders, President Andrew Jackson. It goes on to describe how Jackson and the Democratic Party passed legislation that brutally expelled Native Americans from their land and created the reservation system. This is followed by a political analysis of the historical record of the Democratic Party in the North and South in supporting and defending the institution of slavery, and ensuring its spread into the western territories. It examines the founding of the Republican Party which D'Souza suggests was a reaction to the support of slavery by the Democratic Party and their endorsement and defense of fugitive slave laws. The film then argues the Democratic Party opposed the Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution. The film argues that the Democratic Party had close ties to the Ku Klux Klan in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the accusation that Democratic President Woodrow Wilson supported the KKK and racial segregation, opposed anti-lynching legislation, manipulated New Deal legislation in the 1930s to keep African Americans from benefiting, and opposed civil rights legislation of the 1960s. The film also examines the validity of the common argument made by leaders of the Democratic Party that the parties "switched positions", with the Democratic Party becoming progressive and Southern racists becoming Republicans, which it rebuts by arguing that fewer than 1 percent of Southern Democrats who opposed civil rights legislation changed parties. The film examines the record of the Democratic Party in its use of social welfare programs and machine politics, particularly in urban areas, to create what has been described as a new plantation system, enabling the Democratic Party to exploit and coerce residents. The film then describes the rise and activities of radicals such as Saul Alinsky, who D'Souza believes affected both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton greatly. The film proceeds to examine and criticize the actions of Clinton, questioning her ethics, honesty, and motivations. In a post-credits scene, Dinesh D'Souza appears in front of a classroom, saying "So how will you know when you have become an American? You'll know, when you become a Republican", followed by an applause by the students in the classroom.