A recent Facebook discussion about the attack on unions currently being waged in Michigan brought to mind the sequence of events portrayed in Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here.
I recommend getting a copy and reading it. (I'm a retired English teacher. Giving homework assignments is second nature to me.)
You will be amazed at just how much Buzz Windrip's populist movement in the novel resembles that of the Tea Party with which America has flirted for the past five years.
The parallels in tactics are striking - especially the penchant for hate-and-fear-mongering while simultaneously and self-righteously wrapped in the flag and brandishing the Bible as a weapon.
The good news is that it is not 1935, and life has not imitated art. The plans of those who would have us believe that all our problems would disappear if we "took America back" to the days of slavery, child labor, robber-baron industrialism, and unrestrained militarism have come a cropper, and America is a better place for it.
The American voting public has been wise enough to avoid going over the "über-patriot-religionism cliff," electing Barack Obama as President of The United States not once, but twice despite the Tea Party's well-funded attempts to frame him as a foreign, Muslim, communist, socialist, baby-killing, gun-hating, "N-word."
"It Can't Happen Here" can be purchased for around $10, or you can download a .pdf copy by clicking this link: Download the novel.
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