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Chapter 23
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
Back in Fort Beulah, Jessup worries that Emil Staubmeyer and Shad Ledue will find out about his escape attempt. He finds it more and more frustrating to write in favor of the administration, and he starts to lose hope. But one weekend, Philip calls to say he’s visiting from Worcester. This instantly raises Jessup’s spirits. But when Philip arrives, he seems too polite and formal. He wonders about Fowler Greenhill’s death, since he respects Judge Swan’s “wonderful reputation,” and that night, he admits that he’s visiting because of his father’s problems with the government.
Philip Jessup’s dogged faith in the new administration shows how status, wealth, and education by no means protect people from falling for Windrip’s populist propaganda. In fact, it’s just the opposite: because Philip belongs to the nation’s legal elite and knows prominent men like Judge Swan, he views the government as legitimate and respectable. Ultimately, Philip serves as a character foil for his father: both struggle to balance their commitments to family and country—they just disagree about which side has the nation’s best interests at heart.
Themes
Philip asks if Doremus is really against the Corpos—yes, he is. Even though he didn’t vote for Windrip, Philip now loves and respects the administration. Doremus points out that the same administration murdered Fowler Greenhill, and Philip replies that the administration’s noble ends justify its violent means. Doremus angrily declares that the government is just talking about noble ends as an excuse, and that Philip sounds exactly like the communists who try to justify the Bolsheviks’ atrocities. Philip says that he’s no communist, and he declares that Windrip has stopped communists from invading the country (which is a government propaganda line).
Philip and Doremus’s argument hinges on a more basic disagreement about how much power the government should have: Doremus believes that it should be limited, while Philip believes that it should be able to do anything it wants to achieve its goals. In turn, this disagreement depends on a fundamental difference in trust. Philip thinks that politicians like Windrip are honest and really want to achieve their campaign promises, while Doremus recognizes them as liars and their promises as propaganda. Specifically, Doremus sees that populist authoritarians like Windrip demand more legal powers (such as the power to overrule Congress) by claiming that these powers are necessary to pass broadly popular laws (like the universal $5,000 basic income). After convincing the public to grant them these extraordinary powers, populists then use those powers not to enact the policies they promised, but rather to enrich themselves and their allies.
Themes
Philip also celebrates Windrip for ending unemployment and stopping crime, and especially for spiritually “revitaliz[ing] the whole country” through military discipline. He declares that, like Europe, the U.S. is finally overcoming liberal democracy and “selfish individualism” to create a system really run by the people. He thinks that the U.S. should start expanding into Mexico and Central America, and that Doremus should start supporting the Corpos if he wants to avoid the “mighty serious trouble” that he’s headed for. In fact, Philip reveals that he’s now joining the Corpos as an assistant military judge. Doremus calls him a “traitor” and “stuffed shirt,” then kicks him out of the house.
Philip makes the connection between Windrip’s government and the powerful fascist movements in Europe more explicit than ever before. Despite the U.S.’s differences from Europe, Sinclair Lewis suggests, it still has all the core risk factors for fascism: a deeply conformist culture, an extreme reverence for the military, and a widespread belief in the nation’s destiny to expand through conquest. Finally, Philip also reveals that he’s joining the government, leaving the reader to wonder whether he truly believes in any of what he has said, or if he’s just repeating what the government requires him to say to keep his new job.
Themes
