Remarkable: in the crisis-ridden 1930's Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel entitled It can't happen here (1935) which, now that is has been reissued, seems to evoke a myriad of comparisons with the present situation. A folksy Southern politician rises to power with the support of Big Business, religious fanatics and a popular vote that is fed up with liberal media, fancy-talking intellectuals, shiftless progressives, foreigners, pinkos, promiscuity, welfare hangers-on etcetera. He establishes a de facto dictatorship, based on a climate of continuous fear of 'powerful and secret enemies of America' who are 'planning their last charge'. Oh, and sauerkraut is renamed Liberty Cabbage'...
Go figure.
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