It Can't Happen Here, Can It? (or: Time to Wake Up)

Penguin Classic’s back-cover blurb for Sinclair
Lewis’s 1935 novel ‘It Can’t Happen Here.’

by Michael Corthell

Yes it can, and it is.

Maybe it's time to read (or re-read) this classic novel that was written as a warning back in the 1930's to and for Americans who were largely unaware of Hitler's fascist designs on Europe and the world.

The year is 1936. America has just elected Berzelius Windrip president. His fascist policies turn the United States into a totalitarian, one party state.

This is a stunning and prescient book. Stunning because it is a dictator's road-map. Published during the rise of fascism in the 1930's it describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a politician who defeats Franklin Roosevelt to become president. Windrip foments fear and promises drastic reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values, or 'America First'.

Windrip takes total control of the government and imposes dictatorial rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, much like Hitler’s SS. The novel's plot centers on news reporter Doremus Jessup's opposition to the new regime and his subsequent resistance against it.

This book may have even been read by Donald Trump and used as a playbook, but I doubt that. It is much more likely that the spirit Sinclair Lewis was channeling is the same malevolent spirit that infests Mr. Trump (classic narcissism). It's extremely disconcerting just how much the dialogue in this novel mirrors Trump's statements -- from whining about 'fake news', to discussing eliminating any news that isn't pro-Trump, to claiming to represent the forgotten little people and consorting with very specific hate groups that could be violent in their support of him.

President Windrip outlaws dissent, puts political enemies in concentration camps, and trains and arms a paramilitary force called the Minute Men, who carry out his wishes. One of his first acts is to eliminate the influence of the United States Congress. In addition, his administration curtails women's and minority rights, and eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors.

Reviewers at the time 'It Can't Happen Here' was published, and literary historians ever since, have emphasized the connection with Louisiana politician Huey Long, who was preparing to run for president in the 1936 election when he was assassinated in 1935 just prior to the novel's publication.

Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American capitalism and materialism between the wars. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, "If there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds."