In the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury) has a speech near the climax of the movie about how she was unwittingly the cause of her son’s being brainwashed by the Chinese.
But I’m trying to figure out, then, what Mrs. Iselin’s politics were. Was she a secret Marxist disguised as a right-winger? Or was she a right-winger who somehow got bamboozled by Marxists? 
I’d think the former. I’ve heard that spies will often disguise their real political feelings with those of the opposite side, so they are less likely to be ever associated with communists(or whatever beliefs they hold).
I thought it was pretty obvious she was an opportuinst (who wanted to get her husband elected president) with no particular ideaology- or any idea what having an ideaology would mean.
The impression I got was that she was willing to side with whatever faction and use whatever tactics offered her the best shot at power, but once she had that power, she was going to screw everybody over. This includes having powers over the U.S. “that make martial law seem like anarchy” and a chance at revenging what the Asian commies did to her son.
Her ideology was herself, plain and simple. She’d have had that “Murder, She Wrote” chracter for breakfast.
For what its worth, I agree with betenoir. Neither Mrs. Iselin nor her husband truly believed in the stuff he spouted, nor did she believe the Marxist point of view of her son’s handlers. She just wanted to advance her family’s situation.
When I first saw the movie, I felt that her philosophy was created by the author to resemble Joe McCarthy or his sidekick on HUAC Richard Nixon. Four decades later, I still think that holds true.
I will say, however, that Condon’s book does not make it quite so clear.
Um, can I be shallow and just say I really liked that dress she wore in the final scenes?
Well, it’s pretty clear in the film that Mrs. Iselin (masterfully played by Angela Lansbury, who was a mere three years older than Lawrence Harvey, who played her son) is a Communist agent, who is subverting the nation from within. Condon’s point, of course, is that the intolerant right-wingers, like the Iselins in fiction and Joe McCarthy in real life (and Bob Barr, Trent Lott, John Ashcroft…) are a greater danger to the health and security of our republic than the Communists.
I have both the DVD and the original novel at home. I’ll have to recheck the pertinent passages after work tonight.