Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), author of "Babbitt," "Main Street," and "Elmer Gantry", was concerned about the rise of right wing fascism in America. Lewis published his novel "It Can't Happen Here" in 1935 in the hope that it would help avert what he felt was a looming catastrophe in America. Lewis felt he had to expose many of the collective prejudices and resentments present in the American character of the 1930s. Reissued in 2005, this novel is an unsettling read.
The novel, perhaps not Lewis's best (he wrote it in 60 days) and perhaps too hyperbolic and satirical, is still prescient. It serves as a warning that political movements like fascism can come to power democratically even in the United States.
The novel echoes its time. The Great Depression is dragging on, the New Deal is under attack, FDR is vulnerable, and the GOP had crashed. The people "once sunny, confident, and forward looking" are now scared, angry, and disillusioned. Conspiracy theories abound. Some say it is the fault of international bankers (i.e., Jews). Others blame foreigners (immigrants). Others blame the communists and intellectual elites. People are desperate for strong leadership and as a result the numerous populist movements led by fire-breathing demagogues promising deliverance have a dangerous appeal to many Americans.
This then is the story line of Lewis's novel: It is the middle of the Depression and people everywhere are suffering. A folksy, "aw-shucks," plain speaking politician from the South rises to power during a period of profound unrest in America. He is the "Common Man" and the people love him. He is one of them.
It is also the story of a small town Vermont newspaperman Doremus Jessup resisting the fascist administration of the newly elected President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip. The character of Windrip, is an amalgam of several patriotic (and anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and anti-communist) populist agitators of the 1930s.
"Buzz" Windrip campaigns for the Presidency by relentlessly attacking the liberal media, fancy-talking intellectuals, shiftless progressives, communists, promiscuity, international bankers, and welfare hangers-on, while at the same time promoting a return to traditional values, patriotism, love of country, and the "good ole days." He speaks ambiguously about the noble goals of liberty, freedom, and equality -- and the people love him, even if they don't fully understand him.
Behind the scenes, Windrip is coached by his right hand man and "brain," Lee Sarason. Sarason writes Windrip's speeches and papers and orchestrates the campaign from the background. Windrip cozies up to the electorate by stroking their disdain for the fancy talk of intellectuals and encouraging them to follow their hearts, not their minds. His platform is not entirely clear, but none of that matters as long as he keeps expressing himself "decisively." Windrip declares, "We've got to change our system a lot, maybe even change the whole Constitution...The Executive has got to have a freer hand and be able to move quick in an emergency..." With a combination of massive donations from big business, a disorganized liberal left, the support of religious fanatics, a stuffy opponent, and a dispirited and unsettled populace, the country boy wins the presidential election.
Shortly after winning, Windrip's personal Minute Men (his storm troopers) are made an official arm of his government. Given the nature of "powerful and secret enemies" of America who are planning to take away our freedoms, an indefinite state of crisis is declared, and civil liberties are stored away for safekeeping. When the threat passes, we can have them back. But in the meantime, citizens are asked to "bear with" and "support" their President.
Windrip's Minute Men immediately arrest and detain 100 congressmen. Windrip then forces a weakened Congress to surrender its authority and give the President emergency powers. He appoints his friends and political advisers to high-level positions, stuffs the Supreme Court with his stooges, and allows big business to write economic policy. Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights are out. Courts become military tribunals. Labor unions are dissolved, strikes are outlawed, and corporate presidents are made officers of the state. They close universities (the liberal ones) and start new state schools that teach an administration approved curriculum where all students must take military training. They close libraries and cull and burn subversive books. Personal mail is read and censored. Telephone calls are tapped and monitored. Labor camps are established for the unemployed and political concentration camps for dissidents under "protective arrest." Unemployment almost disappears (all the unemployed are in labor camps). The government begins to print money causing inflation and the dollar and exports to fall. Sugar becomes too expensive to import.
Windrip's Minute Men intimidate and take over the independent press, consolidate and censor the media, and fill the government controlled newspapers with pap -- government issued press releases and propaganda, and entertainment news from Hollywood, but virtually no real domestic or international news. Importation of foreign newspapers is banned and ports are rigorously monitored. A few brave newspapermen worry that America is moving backward to a time when anti-German politicians in Washington renamed sauerkraut "Liberty Cabbage". But newspaper readers pay little mind. The people like it.
Many responsible citizens, well educated and well off, stand by passively and do nothing. Others do speak out and are sent to political detention centers. Some try to flee to Canada, but the borders are sealed. Some shamefully join the ranks of the administration. Others form a new underground railroad to smuggle others out and to print seditious papers at the risk of their lives.
All that is left of the old America are the flags and patriotic songs, and for many patriotic Americans that is enough.
However, unrest begins to grow in a now questioning middle America. In order to still this unrest, the new dictator begins a PR campaign to divert the people's attention by insinuating that Mexico is about to invade America. Incidents of Mexican incursions of our borders are manufactured and reported in the administration controlled press. "The American newspapers...were full of resentment against Mexico. Bands of Mexicans had raided across into the United States...they burned a town in Texas..." and so on. "To answer this threat, America, the one country that had never lost a war and never started an unjust one, rose as one man. ...In one month, five million men were drafted for the invasion" of Mexico.
"It Can't Happen Here" follows in the tradition of other dystopian novels -- Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984." Because this exaggerated story is grounded in a tangle of 1930s historical detail, the novel has come to be ignored or dismissed as irrelevant today. In view of the current resurgence of right-wing extremism worldwide, a re-examination of this cautionary tale (in its historical context) is perhaps now warranted -- it may still have relevance.
To Lewis the disaster he so vividly paints was not entirely the fault of the voters who gladly put up with America's principles being gutted. The blame, Lewis asserts, also falls on the complacent and passive "it can't happen here" crowd -- those Americans who failed to realize that being American does not change basic human nature, that whatever it is that attracts people to tyranny exists in the souls of Americans as well.
Sinclair Lewis was trying to warn Americans. This novel is still a cautionary tale for all who will listen.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II and after serving 12 years as President. The official website of the White House states, “Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his [first] Inaugural Address, ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ ”
What might have happened if Roosevelt had been allowed to serve out his fourth term as President? Law professor Cass R. Sunstein reminds all of us of the vision FDR had for America in his book "The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever" (Perseus Books, 2006).
In his State of the Union Message on January 11, 1944, President Roosevelt outlined his “Second Bill of Rights:”
“This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world's greatest war against human slavery. But I do not think that any of us Americans can be content with mere survival. Sacrifices that we and our allies are making impose upon us all a sacred obligation to see to it that out of this war we and our children will gain something better than mere survival.
“The overwhelming majority of our people have met the demands of this war with magnificent courage and understanding. They have accepted inconveniences; they have accepted hardships; they have accepted tragic sacrifices. And they are ready and eager to make whatever further contributions are needed to win the war as quickly as possible.
“However, while the majority goes on about its great work without complaint, a noisy minority maintains an uproar of demands for special favors for special groups. There are pests who swarm through the lobbies of the Congress and the cocktail bars of Washington, representing these special groups as opposed to the basic interests of the Nation as a whole. They have come to look upon the war primarily as a chance to make profits for themselves at the expense of their neighbors – profits in money or in terms of political or social preferment. If ever there was a time to subordinate individual or group selfishness to the national good, that time is now.
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people, whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth, is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights, among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however,…these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
“We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. …People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted…a ‘Second Bill of Rights’ under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all, regardless of station, race, or creed.
“Among these [rights] are:
- The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
- The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
- The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
- The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
- The right of every family to a decent home;
- The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
- The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
- The right to a good education.
“All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”
In his book, Sunstein makes the point that the New Deal vindicated these simple ideas – ideas that proclaim that we as a nation must be conscious of the suffering of the poor, the sick and the homeless among us.
Many critics call the New Deal “meddling” and government “interference” in the free market. I must remind those critics of how much they depend upon government “interference” to control contracts, our banks, currency and stock markets. I must remind them of the “meddling” we now take for granted – from federal highways, to clean water and sewer systems, to Social Security, to health care, to veteran’s benefits, to the postal service, and so on. These benefits did not arrive on our doorstep by attempting to minimize government.
Roosevelt believed that the real question about government intervention was a pragmatic one. What form of intervention best promotes the public good – makes human existence better for everyone? In the face of the Great Depression, it seemed to Roosevelt to be a cruel joke to maintain that free markets were sufficient to ensure liberty and prosperity for everyone. Roosevelt pointed out that people in desperate conditions often do not have freedom of choice.
Some of us know or even remember what it was like in this country before FDR and wonder what America would be like today if Roosevelt had lived and had finished implementing the vision he set out for us in this Second Bill of Rights speech. If, for example, would we now have universal health care and no longer have 44 million Americans without health coverage? Would we now have free education through 16 grades for all who qualified? Would there still be large numbers of illiterate, undereducated, and jobless people in our midst? Would there still be homeless and hungry people in America? Would our crime and divorce rates be lower if everyone could find good jobs that provided a decent, livable wage that allowed them to buy and own their own homes without both husbands and wives working multiple jobs?
The answers to these questions are far from clear, but what is clear is that we are moving backwards. The Financial Times recently pointed out that the median household income in America “is lower now than it was in 2000,” that “the real income of the median U.S. worker has barely shifted since 1973.” Other studies (Professor Kevin Murphy, USC) show that the average pay for corporate chief executive officers rose to 369 times that of the average worker last year compared to 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976. And, the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that more Americans went homeless and hungry in 2006 than the year before and that children made up almost a quarter of those in emergency shelters.
It is clear to this writer that the goals Franklin D. Roosevelt defined in 1944 are still goals that America must aspire to, and what America should be actively trying to achieve today.
Nowadays, liberals and progressives are taking a beating from the right wing media and Republican politicians. The word “liberal” has become a dirty word. I think it is time to remind readers what progressive Democrats have done for this country – creating benefits too many of us now take for granted.
What everyone should remember is that Republicans hated the New Deal when it was born and still hate it now. Republicans would love to roll back all the progressive legislation that Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through Congress in the 1930s. Many rich capitalists would love to take us back to the Roaring Twenties when the Robber Barons got richer and the poor got poorer – back to the days when we all paid for the excesses of the rich during the Great Depression.
For those of you who have forgotten or just take this history for granted, here are but a few of the benefits that the New Deal brought to all Americans during the 1930s:
The New Deal added stability and accountability to our collapsed and ruined financial markets – the Securities Act of 1933, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC), and others.
The New Deal put unemployed people to work – The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Work Projects Administration (WPA), National Youth Administration (NYA), and others.
The New Deal helped poor people buy homes – National Recovery Administration (NRA), Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and others.
The New Deal helped families – Emergency Relief Act of 1935, Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), Rural Electrification Act of 1936, the Social Security Act, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Resettlement Administration, and others.
The New Deal helped veterans – the Veterans Administration, the GI Bill.
The Great Depression was a catastrophic economic event in American history that was precipitated by the stock-market crash of 1929. At the depth of the depression, there were 16 million unemployed – about one third of the available labor force. The gross national product declined from the 1929 figure of $103 billion to $56 billion in 1933. The Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted upon ordinary Americans.
Many factors contributed to the collapse of the economy, but economists agree on several factors. The prosperity of the 1920s was unevenly distributed between the rich and the poor. Farmers and unskilled workers were notably excluded from that prosperity. The nation's productive capacity was greater than its capacity to consume. In addition, the tariff and war-debt policies of the Republican administrations of the 1920s had greatly reduced foreign markets for American goods. Finally, easy-money policies led to an inordinate expansion of credit and installment buying and fantastic speculation in the stock market.
I am a Democrat today because in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law America’s first minimum wage law – 25 cents an hour, rising to 40 cents an hour over seven years. This law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), gave you and me and all of us - the right to organize, the 40 hour week, overtime pay, the weekend, and placed severe restrictions on child labor (when previously they worked 14 hour days in sweatshops).
I am a Democrat today because the New Deal raised millions of homeless and unemployed Americans out of poverty and created the ‘Middle Class’ in America – the ‘Middle Class’ that you and I enjoy – a middle class with benefits that too many young people now take for granted as though those benefits have always been with us. Today's young people seem to know very little or nothing about the struggles of the twenties and thirties to achieve the fairness in the workplace that was achieved by working people, unions, and the Democratic Party.
The economic, agricultural, and relief policies of the New Deal stabilized our economy, put people back to work, restored the confidence of the American people, and saved America.
That's why I am a Democrat. To be a Democrat meant helping people – the working man, the sick, and the needy. Today. such views are sneeringly condemned as being “Liberal” – a “dirty word” synonymous with “Marxist” or “Socialist” or even “Communist” – a word intended to smear Democrats. Well, I am an FDR-Democrat, a progressive, a liberal – whatever you want to call me, but I still believe the Democratic Party is the only party really interested in helping the working man, the poor, the sick, our children. In contrast, I believe Republican policies are negative and 'regressive' – to cut taxes, cut welfare, cut funding for education, cut veterans' benefits, cut work rules and environmental regulations that restrict the ability of large corporations to earn even greater profits, etc. I believe that the Republican Party is the party of big corporations and the very rich who embrace “trickle down” tax policies that were disproved in the 20s and helped bring about the Great Depression.
So when Democrats tell you that they are the party that brought you “the weekend,” you should believe them and remind all of your children and grandchildren about this period of our history.
Today, unfortunately, we are witnessing history repeat itself. Bosses today are paid like rock stars. The CEOs of the five hundred largest corporations earned an average of ten million dollars each last year, according to Forbes magazine. And the income disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” is now approaching the obscene pay ratios of the 1920s. We are also seeing the same damaging effects of easy-money and rising consumer debt that now inhibits people’s ability to consume and even pay their outstanding debts.
When “liberals” brings up these facts, we are accused of “class welfare.” But this is not “class warfare.” These are facts that find a disturbing and depressing parallel in the collapse of our economy in 1929.
To quote the philosopher George Santayana, “those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
June 4, 2007
Umberto Eco, the Italian author most famous for "The Name of the Rose," was born in 1932 and grew up under Mussolini. Writing in the New York Review of Books, 22 June 1995, Eco had this to say about fascism:
“Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Fascism, from Hermann Goering’ s fondness for a phrase…(‘When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun’) to the frequent use of such expressions as ‘degenerate intellectuals,’ ‘eggheads,’ ‘effete snobs,’ and ‘universities are nests of reds.’ The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values. ...The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Fascism, disagreement is treason.”
Uco wrote all of this five years before George W. Bush stole the election of 2000.
We now have a macho "plain folks-traditonal values" cowboy in Washington who loves taking action for action's sake without thinking about it first ("Bring 'em on!"), who distrusts the intellectual world ("elite snobs"), who does not read and ignores history, and who labels disagreement on the Iraqi War as "unpatriotic" or a "betrayal" of the troops. He manufactured a popular pretext for unilaterally invading another country, Iraq, (just as Hitler and Goebbels did for Poland). He now looks for ways to expand American dominion throughout the Middle East ("Deutschland Uber Alles, Lebersraum!").
Are good Americans (like the "good Germans") so comfortable with their own status quo that they are willing to live under a dictatorship ("I am the Decider") and follow like sheep as their civil liberties disappear? Are good Americans strong and brave enough to remove an elected dictator before he destroys our democracy? The answers are unclear, but I am not hopeful. We seem to be sleep walking through history -- again.
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