The Corner

Politics & Policy

It Can’t Happen Here?

It’s fun to hear liberals cite the 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis as a prophecy of Trumpism. It describes the rise to power of one Buzz Windrip, a populist who brings fascism to America. He is a nativist demagogue who wraps himself in red, white, and blue, becoming president. Here’s the part they tend to skip: Windrip starts out as a senator from Illinois, and he’s a socialist who wants to collectivize everything.

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.
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