EDITORS' CORNER
Key Takeaways
- Professor Nora Gilbert likens the current U.S. political landscape under Trump to the dystopian town of Pottersville from 'It’s a Wonderful Life', highlighting themes of greed, corruption, and concentration of power.
- She draws parallels between Trump's immigration policies and the exploitation of hardworking immigrants in the film, noting a societal indifference towards suffering and injustice.
- Gilbert emphasizes the need for grassroots resistance akin to the main character George's small acts of defiance, suggesting that while there are ongoing protests and acts of solidarity, the U.S. has not yet escaped the dire conditions of 'Pottersville'.
The current political landscape reflects the dystopian “Pottersville” in the Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a professor wrote in a recent op-ed.
University of North Texas Literary Professor Nora Gilbert compared the tyrannical setting of the movie to President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, as well as what she views as growing greed, corruption, and the concentration of political and economic power.
“I can’t help but see parallels between Pottersville and the U.S. today,” Gilbert wrote in a piece published by The Conversation.
“In Pottersville, one man hoards all the financial profits and political power. In Pottersville, greed, corruption and cynicism reign supreme,” she wrote.
The professor also compared President Donald Trump’s immigration policies to the “hard-working immigrants” in Pottersville who ran a business and then vanished.
Further, she wrote that in the novel, the homeless or nonconformists are “scorned and ostracized” and authorities aggressively police and remove people, even in the middle of their daily work.
She claims that each of these scenes feels “less like fiction” and reminds her of the U.S.
Moreover, what disturbs the main character, George, most about Pottersville is not just its brutality, but how numb its residents have become to it. They see him as irrational for believing life could, or should, be better.
“This is what the current political moment feels like to me. There are days when the latest headlines feel so jarringly unprecedented that I find myself thinking, ‘Can this be happening? Can this be real?’” Gilbert wrote.
She also observed that George’s triumph over the town’s tyrant, Potter, doesn’t come through a dramatic act of revenge, but through a series of small, consistent acts of resistance such as telling hard truths to those in power and choosing to run a people-first business instead of one driven by “greed and exploitation.”
She wrote that the U.S. has seen similar protests, boycotts, mutual aid for immigrants, canceled subscriptions, food donations, and other acts of resistance in recent months.
However, the professor doesn’t believe the U.S. has “made it out of Pottersville” yet.
“Each day, more head-spinning headlines appear, whether they’re about masked agents terrorizing immigrant communities, the dismantling of anti-corruption oversights, the consolidation of executive power or the naked display of political grift,” she wrote.
Gilbert is not the only professor to critique the current political landscape under Trump.
In August, a Princeton University professor claimed that President Trump’s “takeover” of Washington D.C. is a sign the country is “sliding towards fascism,” The College Fix previously reported.
