Fascism Can’t Happen Here
Earlier this week, Edwidge Danticat published “It Can Happen Here” in Harper’s Bazaar. Danticat details how legislation in Florida reminds her of oppressive regimes in her Haiti and the repression of knowledge. She reminds us that no matter what we think, oppression and fascism can happen here, even if we think it can’t. The title of the article harkens back to Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, a novel that shows the ways that fascism progresses within a nation. Lewis saw, two years after the Nazi’s rise to power in Germany, the tendrils of fascism embracing the United States, and It Can’t Happen Here served as a plea and a cry to wake up and realize that while one may proclaim immunity from such tendencies, the indoctrination occurs over time.
We see this in the novel’s protagonist, Doremus Jessup, “a mild, rather indolent and somewhat sentimental Liberal” who sees the rise of a fascist element in the United States but fails to act in a timely manner. From the outset, Jessup sees the rise of fascism, but he sits on the sidelines and goes about his life until it is too late and he must actively fight back against the rising tide. Lewis’ novel, and Jessup in particular, highlight what Robert McLaughlin says about the novel, “it becomes clear that the installation of a fascist government will not be a revolution or a coup d’état; rather, the groundwork for fascism has already been…
