Eons ago, when I was in high school, Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here" was recommended reading, although it was not required. ("Babbit," unfortunately, was. What an incredible bore.) On a summer job right after graduation, I was endeavoring to explain to my workmates, not much older than I, Lewis's premise: that US voters would unwittingly elect as President a man who had his military take-over machinery already in place, placing the country into the grip of a lawfully elected iron dictator. And these people laughed at me as though I were imagining with an imagination beyond wild---beyond the Twilight Zone, beyond the Outer Limits, beyond Tales From the Dark Side---something fantastic and impossible. And as though this book didn't exist. They didn't seem to get the premise: that a politician looking for an office, prestige and above all POWER would intentionally misrepresent himself, his views, his aims, his agenda and then, in the twinkling of an eye turn the country into a military dictatorship. They just kept laughing, interrupting me and repeating, ironically, the title: "It can't happen here. We wouldn't do that. We would never elect a dictator. This is America, we're a democracy."
Now: what do you think the answer to your question is?
Or, I suppose that question can always be answered, "It would and it will if, if, and if."
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On a summer job right after graduation, I was endeavoring to explain to my workmates, not much older than I, Lewis's premise: that US voters would unwittingly elect as President a man who had his military take-over machinery already in place, placing the country into the grip of a lawfully elected iron dictator. And these people laughed at me as though I were imagining with an imagination beyond wild---beyond the Twilight Zone, beyond the Outer Limits, beyond Tales From the Dark Side---something fantastic and impossible. And as though this book didn't exist.
They didn't seem to get the premise: that a politician looking for an office, prestige and above all POWER would intentionally misrepresent himself, his views, his aims, his agenda and then, in the twinkling of an eye turn the country into a military dictatorship.
They just kept laughing, interrupting me and repeating, ironically, the title: "It can't happen here. We wouldn't do that. We would never elect a dictator. This is America, we're a democracy."
Now: what do you think the answer to your question is?
Or, I suppose that question can always be answered, "It would and it will if, if, and if."
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But you know what they say about opinions....
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