I first read Sinclair Lewis’ novel about a fascist being elected President of the United States, “It Can’t Happen Here,” when I was in high school roughly 50 years ago. At the time, I thought it was almost ludicrously unrealistic. But as Trump has continued his dominance of the Republican field, I decided to re-read it, and thus far I’ve been astounded.
If the novel had been published this year, rather than in 1935, it would be obvious that Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, the fascist who managed to get the Democratic nomination in the novel, was a VERY thinly disguised Donald Trump. He isn’t a wealthy businessman in the novel, but he’s got all of the other Trump characteristics. He has the bombast, the ridiculous promises with no details as to how he’d actually achieve any of them, the stirring up fear and hatred (in his case of the Jews), combined with comments as to how he actually likes the people he’s stirring up hatred against. He even attacks the press, and then brags about how much he’s saving on campaign expenditures by the fact that they’re constantly covering him.
It’s almost as if Sinclair Lewis had a time machine, traveled forward to 2015, watched Trump for awhile, and then traveled back to 1935 and wrote the novel, simply changing the party the fascist was campaigning in, and populating the novel with personalities from the 1930’s.
If you haven’t read the novel before, or if, like me, it’s been a long time since you’ve read it, I strongly recommend that you do so. I think you’ll be astounded at the similarities. It’s almost as though Trump read the novel himself and is deliberately patterning himself after the Windrip character.