IN HIS dystopian novel of 1935,“It Can’t Happen Here”, Sinclair Lewis described the rise of an American Caesar, and Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip. Buzz easily defeats Franklin Roosevelt for the presidency by promising to fabricate (to make up, invent) America remarkable again. He then sets about destroying the country’s system of checks and balances,by fomenting anxiety and unleashing activists, while sensible Americans comfort themselves with the belief that their country is immune to authoritarian takeover.
Donald Trump’s election has propelled Lewis’s novel back onto the bestseller list and provoked a lively debate on the question of Can it Happen Here?”, or the title of a new book edited by Cass Sunstein,a Harvard professor and former adviser to Barack Obama. It is time for Britain to engage in a similar debate. The British are even more confident than the Americans about their immunity to extremism. Britain hasn’t had a violent revolution since 1640-60. Rather than rallying to Oswald Mosley’s fascists in the...
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Source: economist.com