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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Can’t Happen Here, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Fascism
Liberalism and Tolerance
Morality and Resistance
Political Communication and Mass Media
Summary
Analysis
In this chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour, Windrip writes that, just like he became popular in school when his teacher singled him out for being stupid, he succeeded in the Senate when people insulted him. In contrast to Windrip’s campaign, Walt Trowbridge’s is meek and technocratic. Trowbridge comes up with a plan to gradually redistribute wealth, but he excites nobody. Meanwhile, the country’s seven Communist parties each field a hopeless candidate, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt refuses to support Windrip and starts a new party instead, the Jeffersonians (or “True Democrat[s]”). Most of Congress, the socialists, and many governors and mayors support Roosevelt. But Trowbridge and the Jeffersonians are doomed, because they defend “integrity and reason,” when the public wants primitive emotions instead.
The race between Windrip, Trowbridge, and Roosevelt demonstrates why fascism poses such a potent threat to democracies like the U.S. While Trowbridge offers practical solutions to the nation’s economic woes and Roosevelt has a proven record of addressing them through the New Deal, Windrip steals the spotlight anyway. By traveling the country and broadcasting his views on the radio, he makes his personality the most important issue in the election. In other words, he makes the election about loyalty and emotion, not policy. Thus, Lewis shows that defending democracy requires ensuring that “integrity and reason” remain the core of political life.
Themes
In Vermont, Doremus Jessup wonders what to do: he wants to support Roosevelt, but he still respects Trowbridge (and knows that he has better chances of winning). He attacks Windrip in his Informer columns, and he spends his days interviewing voters around town. He’s dismayed to see that most of them support Windrip—not because they believe that he will turn the whole country around, but because they believe that he will personally send them cash. They love Windrip’s promises to tax the rich, permanently restrict Black people’s rights, and give everyone a minimum of $5,000 per year. Fort Beulah residents even buy new appliances on credit from Raymond Pridewell’s store, since they assume that they’ll be able to pay everything off once Windrip gets elected.
Doremus Jessup’s profession as a newspaperman gives him a deep sense of civic responsibility. He recognizes that Windrip’s candidacy is based on presenting an appealing myth to the world, but he also believes—at least initially—that he can fight that myth by providing accurate information to the public. However, when he starts interviewing locals, he quickly realizes that they are too determined in their support for Windrip to change their minds because of mere facts. This raises one of the novel’s central questions: to what extent can truth fight propaganda? And if it can’t, then what can?
Themes
Shad Ledue’s outlaw friend Alfred “Snake” Tizra, the unkempt dairy farmer Aras Dilley, Lorinda Pike’s business partner Mr. Nipper, and Emil Staubmeyer all giddily tell Doremus Jessup that Windrip will make them rich. Louis Rotenstern, Frank Tasbrough, Medary Cole, and R.C. Crowley also support Windrip, claiming that he’s not as much of a populist as people think. And, to Jessup’s surprise, Shad Ledue gives speeches, organizes rallies, and even leads a parade for Windrip. Sissy Jessup’s two suitors, Julian Falck and Malcolm Tasbrough, argue about Windrip when they visit her: Falck opposes him, while Malcolm proudly quotes pro-Windrip editorials. Sissy points out that Windrip seems to be splitting the country in half.
Politics begins to divide the characteristically peaceful, quiet town of Fort Beulah. But the two pro-Windrip factions in town support him for opposite reasons: working-class people like Shad Ledue wrongly believe that Windrip will fight the rich on their behalf, while the actual rich, like the Tasbroughs, know that Windrip is actually on their side. Yet both groups assume that they will be personally rewarded for loyalty to Windrip. This prospect is dangerous because it suggests that Windrip’s government will do away with one of the central tenets of a representative liberal democracy: that the law ought to treat all citizens equally, regardless of their personal beliefs.
Themes
