Countless Americans finally understand the fascist government’s lies and atrocities clearly enough to take up arms against it. Yet the nation doesn’t simply fall into another civil war, in which the victorious side gets to implement its system of government. Instead, Lewis shows that the nation’s future depends on
persuasion—if the rebels want their democracy back, they must make the American people
believe in democracy (or “self-government”). Thus, Lewis concludes that a democratic revolution is different from (and superior to) an authoritarian one because it tries to seize power through the pen, not the sword. While an authoritarian revolution tries to seize power by directly overthrowing the government, regardless of what the public thinks, a democratic one builds power by building popular support. A successful democratic revolution doesn’t
need to use violence because it grows large enough to outnumber—or even win over—tyranny. Fortunately, political persuasion is what intellectuals like Doremus Jessup do best, and this explains why Lewis chose to make Jessup the hero of his novel.