PHILIP ROTH AND THE FOG OF FEAR

THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA: A NOVEL
By Philip Roth
400 pp.
Houghton Mifflin Company. $26.

Reviewed by Todd Buell

I come from a family of progressives. Their comments at our holiday reunion revealed an ever-growing rift between the political left and the mainstream in the United States, especially on the issue of preserving civil rights.

All my relatives are unequivocal in their worry about the future of basic civil rights in President Bush’s America. For example, the Patriot Act allows FBI agents to snoop on library records, and the government wants to hold some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for an indefinite period of time without charging them with a crime. These are just two flagrant reasons that many in my family fear that America is increasingly losing touch with the liberties that we rightly take pride in.

I found it appropriate that after we discussed our concerns about civil rights in America, I received Philip Roth’s best-selling novel The Plot Against America. Here, Roth proposes different circumstances in America’s World War II history. Thus, he forces us to ask if we, as a contemporary America, are allowing our government to scare people into conforming to its wishes, therefore sacrificing basic rights that we have long held as sacred.

Roth portrays an America that elects Charles Lindbergh as its president in the election of 1940. This result frightens Roth’s family, along with many Jewish families, because of Lindbergh’s overt anti-Semitism, professed admiration for Hitler, and campaign promise to keep America out of the Second World War, despite Germany’s bombing of Great Britain and its open persecution of Jews.

Lindbergh proceeds to undercut subtly the civil rights of those who oppose his isolationist path for America. He encourages companies to force the relocation of Jewish families out of their traditional homes and into more rural (i.e., prejudiced) parts of America. He also establishes a quaintly named “just folks” program to educate children from ethnic minority groups (i.e., Jewish) about the values of farming, agriculture, and ordinary rural Americans (i.e., Protestants).

The Lindbergh administration not only encourages subtle acts of prejudice in order to cement its power, but also, more odiously, drifts into fascistic tactics by trying to scare those who disagree with it. In the book, the FBI questions a nine-year-old Philip about anti-Lindbergh activities that he may have witnessed. It tries to browbeat business owners to fire employees who have been heard criticizing the President.

Roth makes it clear that most citizens feel comfortable with the status quo. In The Plot Against America, these citizens believe the government when it claims that it is only trying to allow citizens to see different parts of the country. They do not ask if there is a prejudiced political motive at work. In Roth’s America, the nation is mostly openly anti-Semitic or tacitly complies with anti-Semitism. The nation believes anti-Semitic rhetoric and is not disturbed by the violation of Jewish civil rights.

The population does not put a stop to the government’s tactics until the administration, under bizarre circumstances that I will leave you to discover, goes too far and starts arresting or detaining high-profile dissidents.

Roth`s book forces me to wonder: Would most Americans ignore Guantanamo Bay and its increasingly clear Constitutional violations if the FBI were to imprison a high-ranking leftist politician, such as Ted Kennedy, without pressing charges or specifying any reason for his detention? If most of the inmates weren’t Islamic?

Our government tells us that the Patriot Act and keeping dangerous people impounded in orange suits at Guantanamo Bay are both needed for “National Security.” However, it is worth noting that both the United Kingdom and Australia have decided not to charge with any crime some of their nationals whom the United States has released from Guantanamo Bay.

As Roth shows us through his masterful work, governments will, often subtly, cater to a nation’s deepest fears and prejudices in its attempts to hold and maintain power. It will also use “National Security” as a defense for legally dubious actions and as a means to silence debate and curtail rights. When governments do such things, it may make holiday times comfortable for most, but it also frightens others, and damages the rights of all. 

 

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