This is terrifying.
Get Me Roger Stone is a political documentary that was commissioned by Netflix in 2017, shortly after the election of a certain Donald. Rather than focusing on Trump himself, the documentary looks at the life of former Nixon/Reagan/Trump aide, Roger Stone. Yes, he’s the guy who has Nixon’s face tattooed on his back:
Scared? You should be. The film delves into how Stone had the idea to force Trump to run for the presidency all the way back in the early eighties, and how his influence completely changed the legitimacy of American politics and the Republican Party forever.
In light of the events at the US Capitol last week, I thought it would be a good idea to go back to the start of Trump’s unlikely presidency to take a look at the root of it all. Look no further if you want someone to blame. His name is in the title of this documentary.
You have to admit, Roger Stone is incredibly smart. It’s almost chilling to see how his warped, insincere politics have flourished today, and how Stone himself was at the centre of it all. Reagan announcing “Make America Great Again” way back in the eighties? Shudder. So yes, Stone is a crooked, “dirty trickster”, but he’s somewhat of a political mastermind… It just so happens that he’s also evil. Using your intelligence to conduct these money-making schemes? Stone is literally the villain of a superhero original story, except he’s very, very real.
What this documentary does extremely well is to let Stone’s words speak for themselves. Yes, it also includes interviews with his critics, but you can’t say this is not a balanced argument when Stone is also there in his own interview snippets, free to say whatever he wants. And every single thing he says is utterly eye-opening.
The single most powerful quote in this documentary however? “Black, Manafort & Stone… it is the swamp.”
It’s chilling. If you’re asking the question “How did this happen?” after the most recent assault on American democracy by terrorist thugs, this is an excellent place to start. Just listen to the things Stone says, and you will be alarmed by the amount of sound bites from him that Trump has parroted almost verbatim over the past 4 years. Puppetry in motion.
Will you enjoy this if you’re ‘not into politics’? Maybe not. But you really should take note. And if you’re not into politics, you should start to be. If you’re American, it will have affected your life more since 2016 than you will know.
Get Me Roger Stone is available to stream on Netflix in the UK.
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