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The Arabian Candidate
by Paul Krugman

In the original version of “The Manchurian Candidate,” Senator John
Iselin, whom Chinese agents are plotting to put in the White House, is
a right-wing demagogue modeled on Senator Joseph McCarthy. As Roger
Ebert wrote, the plan is to “use anticommunist hysteria as a cover for
a communist takeover.”

The movie doesn't say what Iselin would have done if the plot had
succeeded. Presumably, however, he wouldn't have openly turned traitor.
Instead, he would have used his position to undermine national
security, while posing as America's staunchest defender against
communist evil.

So let's imagine an update – not the remake with Denzel Washington,
which I haven't seen, but my own version. This time the enemies would
be Islamic fanatics, who install as their puppet president a demagogue
who poses as the nation's defender against terrorist evildoers.

The Arabian candidate wouldn't openly help terrorists. Instead, he would serve their cause while pretending to be their enemy.

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