Kris Kristofferson, one of the most multi-faceted American figures of profile who was an accomplished athlete, scholar, Army helicopter pilot, songwriter (he penned “Me and Bobby McGee” while working in the Louisiana offshore oil patch), actor, and outlaw country musician, passed away on Saturday in Maui at the age of 88.

Forgotten or relegated to footnote status in his remarkable biography was Kristofferson’ playing the central figure in the 1987 ABC miniseries Amerika.

Though both Amerika and the action-film Red Dawn (which came out three years before) focus on a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, Amerika tackles the subject from a more unsettling and different angle.

First, the Russians successfully make a desperate gamble to win the Cold War through via an EMP attack to essentially wreck the nation’s communications to stage a counter-attack.

But rather than centering on the military conflict between the two superpowers, Amerika depicts life in the country ten years into the Soviet occupation.

Amerika tackles the seemingly mundane narrative of getting by- from dealing with rationing to restrictions on personal liberty- but to the attentive viewer the nuances and subplots are striking particularly in today’s society and political environment.

Kristofferson portrays the “rehabilitated” ex-Congressman Devin Milford- a sincere liberal and failed candidate for president in 1988 who used his campaign to warn the country of the false-choice between the equally Soviet-compromised Democrats and Republicans that in reality are competing facades of the same uniparty.

After the curtain drops on the reality of the situation post-election and the Soviets initiate an actual military occupation of the country with the complicity of both Democrats and Republicans that are merged into the American Unity Party collaborationist front, Kristofferson ‘s character and other vocal dissenters are incarcerated, “reeducated,” and physically and mentally tormented in American gulags.

Under duress Milford is made to denounce himself as a traitor and in an act of humiliation ordered to recite a “reimagined” pledge of allegiance to a Soviet-variation of the United Nations flag before his captors and fellow political prisoners.

The miniseries touches on today’s cancel culture via the “domestic exiles,” Americans deemed potentially dangerous to the regime and are treated as second-class citizens and compelled to live in hovels on the outskirts of towns.

On the opposite end of the power spectrum are the American party officials, who go out of their way to bully both the citizenry and the exiles ostensibly to show their fealty to the Soviet authorities (some of whom are taken aback by their enthusiasm to cruelly harass their countrymen) but primarily to demonstrate and consolidate their own power and instill fear and compliance in their neighbors.

Towards the end of the miniseries Kristofferson’s character attempts to stir a new American awakening to resist the Soviets (whose grasp on power in both America and in Russia is slipping due to Communism’s systemic flaws) though before he can light the veritable fuse via a national radio broadcast Milford is fatally shot by an American military officer who was blindly following orders to preserve the status quo.

Produced 40 years ago, Amerika hits on the dangers of a uniparty, sham trials, imposing financial hardships upon those who do not toe the prevailing culture and political narratives, harassment by the state, raids on religious institutions (the miniseries opens up with this), intentional deindustrialization, confiscation of firearms, turning schools into indoctrination centers where students are taught to despise our founding fathers as criminals, and the degradation of America’s role in the world from that of a superpower to one no different than any other country.

Oh and the stooge American president who is a pawn of the Soviets bears a considerable resemblance to Mitt Romney (obviously that’s coincidental but it is remarkable nonetheless).

And I’m not exaggerating one bit.

Though inconveniently unavailable on DVD or streaming (unsurprising considering how some of the aspects of the miniseries have crept into American sociey) a die-hard Kristofferson fan uploaded each episode on YouTube and they can be accessed free of charge.

Kristofferson leaves behind a massive entertainment legacy and an amazing example of successfully harnessing the necessary gumption to pursue his dreams in that field, even doing janitorial work in a music studio just to get his foot in Nashville’s music scene.

Yet it was his starring role in a controversial television program most people have forgotten was ever made where Kristofferson provided a glimpse into the future of what domestic tyranny looks like and has become eerily familiar in this day and age.