Imagine watching a movie produced nearly 85 years ago that inadvertently yet perfectly illustrates our time.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which premiered in 1939, is just as current as today’s headlines about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, COVID-19, and social media censorship. It not only portrays the conflict between historic American values and entrenched political corruption. It exposes the true values of the nation’s governing class.

The film, starring Jimmy Stewart, tells the story of a young, idealistic senator whom the political Establishment tries to destroy for exposing its graft. The plot easily could describe the battles pitting Trump against the “deep state,” pitting Big Pharma against an increasingly sick population, and pitting Biden and his “woke” allies against the average American who struggles thanks to their policies.

Our Story Begins…

Jefferson Smith (Stewart), who leads the Boy Rangers, an organization similar to the Boy Scouts, finds himself in Washington after a senator from his state dies in office.

Smith thus joins Sen. Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), whom Smith revered since boyhood, when Smith’s father, a crusading newspaper editor, worked with Paine to fight for causes that others rejected. Paine called Smith “a young patriot” who “recites Lincoln and Jefferson.”

That patriotism emerges passionately when Smith arrives in Washington. Mesmerized by the Capitol dome, he boards a sightseeing bus that tours all the major landmarks. The Lincoln Memorial captivates Smith, who spends five hours absorbing American history before heading for his office.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled in my whole life,” Smith said.

A Sheep Among Wolves

But Washington’s smug politicians, staff members and reporters mock Smith’s rural naivete. Undaunted, Smith writes a bill to create a national boys’ camp. The new senator explains his rationale while talking with his secretary, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), a cynic who despises her own cynicism:

Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say, ‘I’m free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn’t. I can, and my children will.’ Boys ought to grow up remembering that.

But Smith’s dream interferes with the plans of his state’s political machine — which appointed him — to profit from the land for the camp. Paine wrote an appropriations bill that includes a proposed dam. The machine’s cronies had been buying the land under false names, and planned to make a profit by selling it back to the government.

However, a disgusted Saunders tells Smith about the proposed graft. When Smith asks Paine about the bill, the machine’s boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), goes to work.

Paine falsely accuses Smith of using legislation for personal profit — exactly what Paine and his confederates are doing — and demands an investigation that could lead to Smith’s expulsion. At the investigation, witnesses lie under oath, including Paine, and produce bogus documents with Smith’s forged signature.

When Smith is called to testify, the horrified young Senator leaves the room and prepares to leave town. But first, he stops at the Lincoln Memorial, where Saunders finds him disillusioned and broken.

The Original Fake News

Saunders then coaches Smith into staging a filibuster to tell his side of the story and delay the expulsion vote. In response, Taylor calls the editor of the leading newspaper in his state’s capital and orders him to “keep everything Smith says or any other pro-Smith stuff coming from Washington out of all of our newspapers and out of all the others you can line up in the state,” he said.

Taylor also ordered the editor to sabotage distribution of opposition newspapers, to smear Smith as a “criminal” who is “blocking a relief bill, starving the people” and to purchase “every minute you can get of every two-watt radio station in the state,” he said. “I don’t care what it costs! Pay out!”

As opinion makers rally the state against Smith, Saunders encourages the Boy Rangers to print Smith’s side in their newspaper. When Taylor’s machine discovers this unexpected opposition, the sabotage turns violent.

In one scene, police use high-pressure fire hoses to disperse pro-Smith demonstrators. Truck-driving thugs even try to injure the boys who distribute their newspapers.

The Climax

Meanwhile, as the filibustering Smith, Stewart delivers one of the most epic, powerful performances in Hollywood history.

Smith passionately argues his case, reading the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and even the Bible while holding the floor to remind his colleagues of what they’re supposed to value. But after nearly 24 hours of filibustering, Smith is hoarse and exhausted.

Paine sees his opportunity. Manipulating procedure, he presents baskets and bundles of letters and telegrams, all opposing Smith. The young senator staggers toward the correspondence, sorts it with exasperation, then quietly and poignantly reminds Paine that the corrupt Senator once fought with his father for lost causes.

Finally, Smith turns to the rest of the Senate.

“You all think I’m licked. Well, I’m not licked,” he shouts, his voice shot. “I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me. Somebody….”

Smith then faints. Paine rushes out of the Senate chamber and tries to kill himself. When somebody stops him, Paine runs back into the chamber, declares that Smith was right and admits his own guilt.

The Upshot

Compare the Taylor machine’s lust for graft with the Biden family’s penchant for personal profit. Or with the efforts of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and others to profit from a dangerous vaccine.

Compare the accusations against Smith to the Saul Alinsky lesson so often deployed by the Democrats: “Accuse your enemy of what you yourself are doing.”

Compare the machine’s attempts to smear Smith and to destroy anybody counteracting its narrative with the attempt by traditional and social media — with help from government agencies — to smear Trump and his supporters, anybody inquiring into the Bidens’ behavior, anybody questioning the 2020 Presidential election’s validity, anybody opposing “woke” ideology or anybody questioning the effectiveness of COVID-19 policies and vaccines.

Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey would salivate with jealousy at the machine’s brutal effectiveness.

For that matter, compare Smith with Trump.

Certainly, Trump is no wide-eyed innocent. Trump brings baggage Smith never owned. Nevertheless, the members of Washington’s bubble, especially the press, mock both the decidedly rural, innocent Smith and the decidedly urban, not-so-innocent Trump.

More importantly, the Taylor machine’s attempt to smear and frame Smith strongly resembles the Establishment’s attempt to smear and frame Trump by any means possible. That includes impeachment, the “nothing burger” of Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Mar-a-Lago raid over a document dispute and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s clumsy attempts to prosecute Trump.

Moreover, compare Smith’s tenacity and dedication to American ideals to Trump’s, baggage or no baggage.

More than eight decades later, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington resonates with a new generation. One young woman succinctly and powerfully summarizes the movie’s relationship to today’s headlines.

“I’m 19 going on 20 & this movie really scared me, for good reason! The politics, politicians, & media were slimy back then; it’s 100 times worse now with the advances in technology, social media, & increasing power.”

That average American listened to Smith’s message. Will the rest of America?

 

Joseph D’Hippolito has written commentaries for such outlets as the Jerusalem Post, the American Thinker and Front Page Magazine. He works as a free-lance writer.