It’s hardly surprising that references to “It Can’t Happen Here”–a 1935 satire by Sinclair Lewis– have been multiplying. For those of you who haven’t read it, or who read it too long ago to recall the plot elements, it depicts the election of a populist demagogue who dismantles democracy through a mix of nationalism, fear and a paramilitary force. The authoritarian takeover includes silencing the press, curtailing rights and establishing concentration camps.
People not attuned to the evangelical world may have missed the growing prominence of hyper-politicized churches such as Mercy Culture, which have become a key wing of the MAGA coalition. Compared with the religious right of previous generations, this cohort of pastors, influencers, and self-described prophets offers up a version of worship that’s at once more mystical, with an emphasis on supernatural powers, and more militaristic, with heightened political rhetoric. Many adopt a Christian-nationalist framework, arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed as such.
In another parallel to Sinclair’s book, studies confirm that the MAGA movement was an outgrowth of fear–especially although not exclusively the fears and resentments of White Christian men to their perceived loss of status to women, gays and people of color. The administration plays on that fear to justify attacks on DEI and those “woke” equal rights.
A “paramilitary force”? Can we spell ICE? “Concentration camps?” DHS is buying warehouses with the intent of turning them into “holding facilities.”
Lest we be tempted to dismiss these startling parallels to fascism, The Atlantic has documented the constant stream of Nazi propaganda being spewed by the Trump administration.
The article reports on the embrace of Nazi slogans and tropes by the U.S. Labor Department, the Pentagon’s use of neo-Nazi graphic elements in its social-media feeds, and the Department of Homeland Security’s recent post of lyrics that mimic a song by a band with ties to an ethno-nationalist social club.
The official social-media channels of the Trump administration have become unrelenting streams of xenophobic and Nazi-coded messages and imagery. The leaders of these departments so far refuse to answer questions about their social-media strategies, but the trend is impossible to miss: Across the federal government, officials are advocating for a radical new understanding of the American idea, one rooted not in the vision of the Founders, but in the ideologies of European fascists.
The article proceeds to provide a list of examples, including a DHS post with the text “We’ll have our home again” –a phrase that is nearly identical to lyrics from a song by a group affiliated with the Mannerbund, a far-right folk group that draws upon Germany’s ethno-nationalist movement: “Oh by God, we’ll have our home again.” Another example–one that I have previously referenced–came from the Department of Labor, which posted a video captioned “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.” It’s impossible to miss the reference to the Nazi slogan “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (“One people, one realm, one leader”).
A number of posts promote the idea of “remigration,” a term meaning the voluntary departure of immigrants to their birth countries. The term has “gained popularity in white-nationalist circles in Europe and America as a euphemism for the expulsion of non-white immigrants from Western countries, potentially including naturalized citizens and their descendants.” The official White House X account has weighed in, posting a portrait of Trump with the single word: remigration.
All of this is an effort by Trump’s administration and the White Christian nationalists and neo-Nazis who support it to reject the notion–perhaps best articulated by Lincoln–that America is “a proposition of equality and liberty,” or (as I have frequently asserted) an Idea. Instead, they insist the U.S. is not a country based on ideals, but on blood and soil.
It can happen here.
We need to demonstrate massive public resistance, starting with the upcoming NO KINGS.
The good news is that the operators of this ad campaign are dumber than rocks. Oh, there are a few who can actually read and write, but other that the evil bastards like Russ Voght, not so much. These idiots fear mass counter-demonstrations, because they have no other place to go mentally. They are prisoners of their own ideology and will run away and hide after putting up resistance. These ICE yahoos will go away as soon as playing soldier boy becomes boring and they’re not cracking heads or killing people. At least that’s what I hope.
I haven’t read “It Can’t Happen Here” but just ordered it on my Kindle. For some reason, Sheila’s first paragraph took my thoughts to Robert Preston’s fast talking salesman Harold in “The Music Man”. How easily he found followers by promising to build up sagging egos by buying his lies of automatic musical abilities; Trump has promised White National leadership and wealth…just send him money. Trump has gone from stealing musical lures at rallies (and being repeatedly sued by musicians) to using flag covered coffins on our most recent military losses in his war on Iran.
It has already happened here and ending it is much more difficult than preventing it would have been at the polls. Consider your vote as a vaccine against disease and remember Trump’s first term with promises that spring would end Covid-19 and when it didn’t, injecting Clorox to cure it. The dead stored in refrigerated trucks caused by his delay in preventing the Pandemic here was the result; what will the body count be from his ICE troops protected by our own military troops and how can he prevent “our boots on the ground in Iran” by claiming our prices “are not that bad” from his imposed global oil crisis. AI is fast becoming a takeover of media sources and his followers are sucking it up; we are moving into a new-world lack of sources to the truth rivaling Hitler’s posts of new laws against Jews daily to inform the public of his remaking of America.
“The authoritarian takeover includes silencing the press, curtailing rights and establishing concentration camps.” Book banning has replaced book burning; the only thing missing is using train boxcars to transport ICE rounded up deportees to warehouse storage sites in place of concentration camps. Trump and Elon Musk’s White South Africans imported here to save them are now begging to return home rather than to “live in a county like this”. We are trapped in our homeland and forced to watch it’s destruction.
Kudos to the courts who have tried to stop some of his actions but those cases are stalled out in appeals courts and redacted Epstein Files are becoming more redacted. Trump has not been and apparently cannot be stopped from destroying America, he is continuing to empty out the Department of Education and when it is gone, where will our history be found at the end of Trump’s takeover…IF IT CAN BE ENDED BEFORE A NUCLEAR ENDING TO US ALL?
I plan to participate in the No Kings rally. However I am beginning to think it might be more effective to have a massive “No Ring Kissers” rally. Participants in each state could carry a large poster with the photo and name of their Congress representatives who are complicit in allowing Trump to destroy our country. My sign could read:”Don’t vote for this man in 2028.” there would be a photo of Todd Young with his name below it.
Other such signs could be carried.
“remember in 2028 that this man supported Trump, not the constitution. Vote him out!” Same idea for other ring kissers.
Perhaps it would do something for these ring kissers to see their names and faces targeted for resistance.
Sheila, it’s been required reading forever.
Rereading it today seems fanciful but as you note it’s anything but. Astonishing that Lewis wrote it so long ago but hus prescience about the coming terror of the 1930s and 1940s is spot on now. No fantasy here.
I answered this question on the Quora website some time ago, Update just now for Sheila’s blog: I’m totally serious.
QUESTION:
Why are American liberals so against states rights? Why can’t they allow local people to make their own laws?
MY ANSWER:
I’ve been trying to promote the concept of a new federalism: eliminate the need for a mid-level management by eliminating the states entirely, in favor of community level government directly coordinated with the federal level, and a totally overhauled constitution to reflect upon and correct the many flaws in our current one. No more 50 state governors and state legislatures holding millions of lives in the balance. Instead of the distorted representation of 50 voting entities of varying sizes, geographies, climates, races, ethnicities, and religions, I propose 350 much smaller and more unified voting entities, “Communities,” with governance by their by Mayors and Community Councils. At the current population, 350 communities of equal populations of 1,000,000 each would be sufficient to create the Distributed Communities of North America.
Think of the possibilities, not the problems: Governors have too much power in today’s United States, and representation can never be truly representative of such mixed populations. Mayors of strictly limited sized communities would have a much easier job. Governance at the federal level would establish the minimum standards that everyone under US jurisdiction can expect and communities would have more local flexibility within those guidelines.
An increase in local control of government would solve a lot of today’s problems. For one, there would be no disparity in the number of CongressCritters — bye-bye to all the distortions caused by the Electoral College! Also gerrymandering: even though it might still be possible, smaller populations in more voting communities would dilute and disperse the effects of any gerrymandering: it would be more easily counterbalanced by other gerrymandered Communities.
But everyone is afraid that the crazies will somehow hijack any constitutional discussion for their own purposes.
Connie, I am very much with you on that! But, I must say, that being in Florididia, with these unapologetic congresspeople, one of whom is a known criminal, and the other two ring kissers who will not be beaten in a free election, it would be useless.
It is happening here, supported by religiously deluded people.
No Kings Day is coming!!!!!
It is less than two years ago that Indiana elected Braun and Banks.
Today you rally for No Kings, but in 2024 what did YOU do to prevent B&B from being elected? In the famous words that brought down McCarthy, “Have YOU no shame?”