This wide-ranging interview with Dinesh D’Souza, recorded in May 2020, covers socialism, the coronavirus lockdown and the presidential campaign in a single conversation. D’Souza, a conservative author and filmmaker, discusses the economic shutdown imposed during the pandemic, the growth of government power that came with it, and the case he makes that socialist ideas were gaining ground in America under the cover of a public health emergency.
The interview also turns to Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and to his controversial remark on a radio show that Black voters who were undecided about supporting him “ain’t black.” D’Souza argues that the comment revealed an attitude of entitlement among Democrats toward Black voters, and that it showed how the party took a constituency it claimed to champion for granted. The exchange captures the sharp, partisan tone of the 2020 campaign as it moved into its final months.
For viewers, the interview is a snapshot of American politics in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic, the lockdown and the election were all colliding. It shows how conservatives framed the lockdown debate, how they attacked Biden, and why they believed socialism, rather than the virus, was the deeper threat facing the country.