Thread by @HoarseWisperer

I've got a little pop culture deep cut for ya...

In 2015, a movie came out called "Our Brand is Crisis" starring Sandra Bullock.

In it, Bullock played a cutthroat politico parachuted into Bolivia to help a flagging candidate go on the attack and take down a front runner.

1/

The movie was supposed to be a comedy but it didn't make a whole lot of people laugh much.

Instead, it painted a pretty cynical picture of a political strategist crafting a take-no-prisoners smear campaign with close to no regard for the consequences.

2/

The movie has a dark comedy bite and the anti-heroes aren't the usual suspects.

They aren't the usual soulless capitalists indifferent to human suffering in the name of profit.

They are, in theory at least, progressives. Folks on the left able to rationalize whatever works.

3/

They're the kinds of people who'd say:

"We are in this because we not only believe in democracy, but in a particular brand of democracy, which is progressive, social democratic, market-based and modern,"

...even as they tear down a popular, progressive politician to win.

4/

Now, here's where it gets a bit loco...

The characters ARE based on real people.

The 2015 "Our Brand is Crisis" was actually based on a 2005 documentary of the same name - which was itself based on the very real 2002 Bolivian election.

5/

The original documentary covered a very real campaign engineered by American political strategists to crush a Bolivian front-runner through negative, smear-heavy tactics...

...and just like in the Bullock version, in real life, their guy won...

6/

The Bullock version had been Hollywooded up in one major way.

In the actual 2002 campaign, none of the three main political strategists who cooked up the dirty, come-from-behind win were women. They were all men.

One was James Carville. Another was pollster Jeremy Rosner.

7/

...and the 3rd was a guy named Tad Devine.

In the 2005 doc, it was Devine who gave the film its title after he summed up the strategy to stoke fear to win:

"Our brand is crisis" - as in, make ppl believe the country was in crisis... and paint their guy as the one to fix it.

8/

The 2005 film was pretty dark and critics savaged the real-life actions of the real-life operatives (Rosner, Devine and Carville).

As one said “Only a nihilist would not be alarmed by [...] by its suggestion of a systemic separation of modern politics and the national good.”

9/

Now, part of that was because in real life, after Devine, et al, got their guy elected, he proved to be a disastrous leader and was promptly forced out of office by civilian protests that turned deadly and lead to 67 deaths.

Sometimes actions have consequences.

10/

Now, bringing this back around to the present, Carville is largely out of the campaign strategy game.

Rosner is still in the polling game and is a partner in a firm.

Tad Devine is still in the political strategy game... and was Bernie Sanders' Chief Strategist in fact.

11/

Devine is famously unapologetic for his work in Bolivia to smear a front-runner and elect a disastrous candidate in his place.

12/

Bolivians feel quite differently.

The release of the 2005 documentary stoked outrage at American efforts to deceive Bolivians into a deadly mistake.

13/

From a purely pop culture perspective, I find the whole backstory of a Sandra Bullock comedy to be interesting in a "now here's a 'behind-the-scenes' story I betcha didn't know about it..." kind of way.

But it's also interesting context for current news stories.

14/

Tad Devine engineered Bernie Sanders' campaign strategy throughout his presidential run.

It was Devine who led the crafting of a populist 'hero vs. villain' formula that contrasted an array of villainous foils against a lone, heroic everyman.

15/

...and in the background, as Devine was positioning his client as the honest broker in the land of crooks, thieves and villains; there was an endless stream of dirty little stories and insinuations circulating about his rival.

Bolivians would probably recognize that plot.

16/

Fast-forward to 2018 and Devine's name has now surfaced in connection with Paul Manafort's upcoming trial.

Devine and Manafort did some work together for the so-called "Torturers Lobby". AKA the foreign bad actors running on blood money who pay American consultants big fees

17/

We know Devine was in communication with Manafort; an indicted Russian, Konstantin Kilimnik; and others as recently as a few months before joining Bernie's campaign in 11/14.

We have no idea why Mueller is using his comms as exhibits in the criminal prosecution of Manafort.

18/

It is entirely possible there was no legal wrongdoing on Devine's part - either during his work with Manafort or during his work for Bernie - and I've seen no evidence suggesting otherwise.

18/

Given all of the above though, the 2005 version of "Our Brand is Crisis" might be worth a watch.

To this day, Devine feels pretty good about having manipulated Bolivians' hearts and minds - even after it plunged the country into turmoil.

We could do without a sequel.

<end>

p.s. ...that candidate Devine, et al, torpedoed back in the 2002 Bolivian election?

His name was Evo Morales.

Not long after the Devine-backed candidate was thrown out of office, Morales was elected President and has been in office ever since...
bbc.com/news/world-lat…

p.p.s. if you're interested in reading up on "Our Brand is Crisis", its backstory, etc., here are a few links to get you started...

insidesources.com/political-cons…

nytimes.com/2006/02/26/mov…

nymag.com/movies/reviews…