LYNNWOOD — Conservative Republican Dinesh D’Souza sounded the alarm Friday for members of the Snohomish County GOP to rise up against powerful and mobilized forces in the Democratic Party out to “steal America” this election season.

“It is time for us to realize the American dream is kind of hanging in the balance,” D’Souza said. “Whether we win America depends on what we actually do.”

His words stirred a standing ovation from the 550 people gathered at the Lynnwood Convention Center for the Snohomish County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner. Money raised from the event will be used to support GOP candidates in elections this year.

D’Souza, an author and filmmaker, delivered some of his characteristic biting criticism of President Barack Obama in his half-hour speech.

But the main thrust was in motivating the crowd to actively engage in the spread of conservatism this election year.

That and promoting his upcoming movie based on his latest book, “Stealing America: What my experience with criminal gangs taught me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party.” The movie is due for release July 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

In it he weds his analysis of the political system with knowledge acquired while serving an eight-month sentence following his 2014 conviction on a federal felony charge of making illegal campaign contributions.

D’Souza spent the time in a state-run confinement center near his home in San Diego. He told the crowd that living in the facility with drug dealers, thieves, gang members and murderers gave him new insight of the dynamics that enable Democrats to blunt political conservatism.

It is a clash between “wealth creators” and “powerful forces” mobilized to “sponge off” that wealth, he said. Democrats are winning because of their greater will and superior strategy, he said.

“We are the wealth creators. It is your wealth they want to take,” he said. “They are playing to win. We are playing as if it’s for the fun of the game.”

The “difficult situation that confronts us,” he said, is they have doctrinaires embedded in public schools, colleges and entertainment industry. It is an intelligentsia that long ago grabbed the “megaphones of our culture” to spread their message.

“We have been fighting in one corner of the battlefield and they have been doing the long march through the institutions. Hollywood. Broadway. The whole world of comedy,” he said.

“They’ve got (Stephen) Colbert. They’ve got Jon Stewart. They have Bill Maher. We have nobody, nobody and nobody. We don’t even compete in an area where a lot of young people get their information,” he said.

D’Souza’s comments on this year’s presidential campaign were directed only at Democrats. He called Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton an “adopted member of the Corleone Family” and dismissed Bernie Sanders as “Rip Van Winkle,” saying Democrats are “too lazy” to be socialists.

He never uttered the names of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich. He offered no analysis on their heated fight to be the GOP nominee even when asked to do so by an audience member.

Rather, he replied by returning to his theme that if conservatives hope to thwart the “Democratic theft” of America, it will require their laser-like activism.

“The real motor of politics is not driven by the public. It is a small group of people who are hands on, who are active in some way. They’re the ones who set the goalposts between which every politician must move,” he said.

“This is a time when you can make a huge difference,” he said. “We’re the only people who can do it. It is our destiny.”

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Dinesh D’Souza