In the aftermath of the January 6th Insurrection it’s become fashionable to compare the Trump administration’s overreach to the Nazis takeover of Germany’s government during the 1930s. Nowhere does this analogy seem more apt than in Sinclair Lewis‘ dystopian novel, It Can’t Happen Here.
Lewis’ fascist antagonist in the novel, Senator Berzelius (Buzz) Windrip, resembles Louisianna populist senator Huey Long more than he does Adolf Hitler in word and deed. For that reason, people sometimes minimize the significance of the comparison between the architect of World War II (and the Holocaust) and the folksy champion of the “Forgotten Men” in 1930s America.
Yet, the narrative’s setting during the Great Depression compares well with the second decade of the the twenty-first century in several respects. One is the rise in political autocracy common to both periods. Another is the increasing political and cultural divides such absolutist attitudes engender. And third is the economic disparity between the Haves and Have-nots in each society despite contemporary America’s affluence vis-a-vis its Depression-era predecessor.
Early in the novel, Lewis quotes protagonist and newspaper editor Doremus Jessup’s ineffective and lazy hired man, Karl Ledue. “What burns me up” he says “isn’t that old soap-boxer’s chestnut about how one-tenth of one-percent of the population at the top have an aggregate income equal to forty-two percent at the bottom.” What upsets him is the existence of the working poor–people who earned $500 or less even during prosperous times who “had the honor of still doing honest labor.”
That “old chestnut” figure Ledue cites compares significantly with economist and former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich’s statistic that one-tenth of one percent of Americans currently own 35 percent of the nation’s wealth and income. You might observe the percentage drop in comparative overall income between the periods indicates the overall improvement in economic equality between the poorest and richest segments of our society. Others would note economic inequality is still with us after 85 years despite all attempts to reduce this divide.
At this point it seems Americans have two choices. Economic inequality either remains a permanently endemic feature of our country’s capitalist society; or this ongoing economic disparity betrays the hopes, dreams, and trust stated in the Preamble to the U.S. Bill of Rights for government to “promote the general welfare” and must be rectified. In Lewis’ book, Jessup is imprisoned for protesting the current political and economic conditions. In contemporary society, the outlook seems similarly dire but much less certain.
Which reality–fictional or real life–would you prefer? Or believe possible? Let me know in the Comments.
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