The worst Fascists were they who disowned the word . . .
Sinclair Lewis on whether it can happen here. (The Commonplace Book Project)
“But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.” — Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis died today, January 10, in 1951.
I wanted to use another quote that I thought belonged to him. “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” It’s certainly more bumper sticker ready — and usually it is attributed to Lewis — but he didn’t write it. Or say it.
He believed it though. He wrote It Can’t Happen Here in 1935 — a time when Hitler and other authoritarian leaders were just coming into power. He believed it could, in fact, happen here.
This article was posted in The Guardian just before the 2016 election. It feels a little quaint now. It ends: In the end, though, it is only a work of fiction — and millions of Americans cling to the belief that it will remain so. Fingers crossed on 8 November.
Here’s a more recent, post-2016, article in the New York Times.
Like Trump, Windrip sells himself as the champion of “Forgotten Men,” determined to bring dignity and prosperity back to America’s white working class. Windrip loves big, passionate rallies and rails against the “lies” of the mainstream press. His supporters embrace this message, lashing out against the “highbrow intellectuality” of editors and professors and policy elites. With Windrip’s encouragement, they also take out their frustrations on blacks and Jews.
Lewis won the Nobel prize for literature in 1930. He was the first American do to so. I found his acceptance speech interesting.
Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.
