During the early decades of the past century, an America enlarged by victory in the first world war and enhanced by the advent of radio, motion pictures and the motor car enjoyed a renaissance that encompassed most fields of human endeavor.
In literature, this was the era of the novelists Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, the playwright Eugene O’Neill, and the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. These names remain notable to the current day.
Also renowned was Sinclair Lewis, the author of such timeless fiction as “Babbitt,” “Main Street” and “Elmer Gantry.” Although Lewis was often criticized for simplistic and overly satirical characterizations, his grasp of the underside of modern life was firm and provocative. Like Hemingway, Faulkner and O’Neill, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1935, Lewis completed his last major work, “It Can’t Happen Here,” which chronicled a fascist takeover of the American government. Authoritarian movements were flourishing in Europe at this time, and had prominence in some American states.
The villain of the novel, the shameless demagogue Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, was elected president on a platform of making the country great again and giving everybody $5,000, the equivalent of about $120,000 today. But once in office, Windrip ignored and denigrated Congress, abused minorities and threw his opponents into detention camps.
Deprived of its traditional checks and balances, the government quickly disintegrated into chaos. Windrip was overthrown and his successor was assassinated.
It was as if the 48 states were a row of dominoes. Fascism knocked them all down.
Some 90 years since its first edition, the book remains popular. After the 2016 presidential election, it was on the bestseller lists.
It was certainly no coincidence that the fictional Windrip bore an unmistakable resemblance to the very real Huey Long of Louisiana, the “Kingfish,” who was elected governor in 1928. The demagogue Long proposed a “Share Our Wealth” program with a guaranteed annual income of $5,000 per family, which was sheer nonsense.
The Kingfish razed the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge without legal authority, and built in its place a copy of the White House. When impeached for this and other offenses, he replied: “I’m the Constitution around here now.”
Long’s term as virtual dictator was marred by innumerable controversies and scandals. But he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930 while retaining the governorship, another scandal.
The Kingfish swam in a sea of presidential ambition, and certainly would have tried for the real White House had he lived. But in 1935, an assassin’s bullet ended his life at the state capitol in Baton Rouge, the tallest such structure in the nation, another building he had constructed.
As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, we recall with pride such impressive leaders as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and the Roosevelts. But from Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr through Huey Long and Joseph McCarthy to the current would-be tyrants, we have had our share of scoundrels as well.
Freedom is never certain and democracy is always fragile. We have a republic — if we can keep it.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
