FADE IN:
A mob of angry white people clamors in slow-motion. They wave cardboard signs and shake their fists. The camera pans along the faces in the crowd as piano notes begin to ring out gently. Sarah McLachlan sings “you’re in the arms/of/the angel.”
The camera focuses on an obese woman with a double chin. She wears a U.S. flag tee shirt and baseball cap with the phrase MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Her sign reads LIAR LIAR PANTS SUIT ON FIRE. She shouts vitriol, though we cannot hear her words. Spittle flies from her mouth as her chins quake in slow-motion.
DISSOLVE:
The same woman sits alone in a dark kitchen devouring a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in slow-motion, weeping. Sarah McLachlan continues to sing.
DISSOLVE:
An older man in cowboy hat, slight build, long beard, punches a black protester at a political rally in slow-motion. His face is twisted into a hateful stare.
DISSOLVE:
The same man sits on a dilapidated front porch, a hand resting on the chair next to him, off-screen. His face is pensive and sad. As the camera pans out, we see that a scarecrow in a floral print dress is seated next to him. He sighs deeply and looks down. Sarah McLachlan continues to sing.
DISSOLVE:
An ugly middle-aged white male with thinning brown hair sits on a kitchen stool. He wears an ill-fitting button-up shirt, the collar of an undershirt visible at the neckline. A laptop computer sits open to the BREITBART NEWS homepage on a cluttered counter behind him. His eyes are deep set, pasted with a wounded, childlike confusion. He looks directly into the camera. A single tear slides down his cheek. Sarah McLachlan continues to sing.
CUT TO BLACK:
“Sometimes wounds are so deep, we don’t even know they are there.”
DISSOLVE:
A blonde female pundit wags her finger aggressively on a talking heads news show in slow-motion. She is incensed. The rest of the panelists smirk sarcastically.
CUT TO BLACK:
“Sometimes when we call out in hate, what we really need is love.”
DISSOLVE:
The same pundit stares sullenly into a bathroom mirror. A photograph of Christina Aguilera from the ‘90s is taped to the mirror. Next to is a bubble of dialogue with the words YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. Sarah McLachlan continues to sing.
CUT TO BLACK:
“Will you give us love?”
INT. WELL-APPOINTED LIVING ROOM:
Sarah McLachlan sits on a couch. A skeletal white male in a grungy tee shirt and beanie cap sits to her right.
SARAH MCLACHLAN:
Hello, I’m Sarah McLachlan, and this is Mike. Mike, like the other people you’ve just seen, is a Trump supporter.
You may know a Trump supporter in your life. Many of them live among us. They shop at our Wal-Marts and gas stations. They work in our malls and restaurants and 24-hour news networks. Some of them may even go to your school, unless you are in college.
Images continue throughout SM’s monologue of sad, angry and/or unremarkable-looking white people in a superimposed box in the upper-right corner of the screen.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
Although more than half of all Trump supporters are deplorable, each one is beautiful in its own special way. Like Mike.
SM gently lays her hand on Mike’s leg. Mike flinches and grunts.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
Mike was born in the depressed economy of an old coal mining town in the middle of nowhere. He hardly knew his mother because she had to work three jobs just to keep Pop-Tarts on the table. He didn’t have access to good schools, community programs, or clean drinking Mountain Dew. And yet, even in these dire circumstances, Mike taught himself dozens of English words by the time he was a teenager, and even learned basic arithmetic so he could buy pot for his family. Mike is a very special boy. Isn’t that right, Mike?
SM pats Mike on the head. Mike grunts and reaches for SM’s breasts. SM grabs and holds his arm kindly but sternly, like a mother.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
Not right now, sweetie. Many people look at Trump supporters with revulsion. But they are not evil, they are lost and suffering. They are not particularly smart or good at anything and need someone to blame for their failures, so they put it all down to a vast Jewish conspiracy and the goddamn Mexicans taking all the jobs.
SUPER. UPPER RIGHT:
A group of Hispanics installs roofing shingles. They throw their heads back and laugh maniacally.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
But just like you, they laugh, they love, and they cry. In some ways, they are just like you and I.
SUPER. UPPER RIGHT:
A family laughs together, hanging on each other with affection around what appears to be a campfire. As the camera pans out, we see that they are toasting marshmallows over a burning cross.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
They want to reach us, but they don’t know how. These helpless creatures are crying out for us to listen. Will you listen?
DISSOLVE:
A beautiful white mansion is framed by a cloudless sky. Green hills roll into the distance. A group of smiling white people and one black guy wearing glasses mill around a garden, picking vegetables and placing them into wicker baskets.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (OFF-SCREEN):
This is Hope House, a place where Trump supporters and alt-right internet trolls come to heal. A place where second chances grow along vegetables in the garden. A place where they are given intensive psychotherapy, a very basic liberal arts education, and love.
DISSOLVE:
A man with a shaved head and prominent swastika neck tattoo lays in the fetal position on a psychiatrist’s couch crying while a therapist holds his hand and listens intently.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
For a small monthly gift, you can sponsor a Trump supporter’s stay in Hope House. With your donation, you will receive a photo of your Trump supporter with a handwritten note and a Hope House tote bag.
SUPER. UPPER RIGHT:
A man holds a red crayon in his fist. He scrawls an illegible note on HOPE HOUSE letterhead.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
Your donation will allow one of these wonderful creatures the second chance they so desperately need. Here, they will learn things for the first time, like how to eat vegetables . . .
The obese woman featured in the opening shot holds a piece of kale up to a light overhead. Her brow is furrowed in confusion.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
How to read books and other literature that is not the Bible . . .
A man holds a hardcover copy of Shel Silverstein’s THE GIVING TREE inches away from his face. He squints in intense concentration to make out the words. A counselor in a HOPE HOUSE polo shirt sidles up to him and, smiling, turns the book right side up. They embrace warmly.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
And how to express themselves constructively through effective art therapy techniques.
A gym-built man with bleached-blond hair draws an image of himself as a child. He is sad and alone in a corner while an older female figure injects herself with drugs at the other end of the room.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
And crucially, without access to the internet or Fox News, they can no longer be manipulated by the right-wing media outlets that have scrambled their impressionable, childlike minds.
A woman empties a box of signed photographs of Alex Jones into a dumpster. She tilts her face skyward and smiles.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
And for those poor souls that do not respond to first line therapeutic treatment . . .
DISSOLVE:
A man lies on a hospital bed. He smiles absently and points to the ceiling at nothing in particular.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (O.S.):
Hope House provides humane, state-of-the-art sterilization and lobotomy procedures to prevent future procreation or voting.
As the camera pans out, we see gauze wrapped around the man’s genitals. He eventually stops pointing at the ceiling and gives a thumbs-up. He grunts throughout.
INT. LIVING ROOM:
SARAH MCLACHLAN:
For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can change a life. Take Mike here. Mike used to think that President Obama was a Muslim and that the Holocaust was make-believe. But through therapy with the counselors at Hope House, Mike learned that he had sublimated the feelings of powerlessness and extreme alienation of his childhood into a revulsion of the underclass—even though, ironically, he himself was a part of it—which then developed into a rigid philosophy that government should remain small and yield to his will, not the other way around. Isn’t that right, sweetie?
Mike nods. He then grunts and grabs at SM’s breasts.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
Ok, but just for a minute.
SM lifts her shirt and begins breastfeeding Mike. He is immediately calmed. SM pats his head as he feeds and coos faintly.
SARAH MCLACHLAN (CONT’D):
There, there, my little man. It isn’t too late for Trump supporters, and you alone can fix it. Together we can make America great again. Be the change America needs. Give today.
DISSOLVE:
A large group stands in front of HOPE HOUSE, except for a few scattered people in wheelchairs with bandages around their genitals. The obese woman from the opening shot stands in the middle holding a sign. LIAR LIAR PANTS SUIT ON FIRE is crossed out with red ink. Underneath is the phrase THANX YOO HOPE HAUS.
(In small print at bottom of screen)
“Paid for by the Clinton Foundation.”
CUT TO BLACK
THE END
© 2016 Matthew C. Douglas