Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Can’t Happen Here, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Fascism
Liberalism and Tolerance
Morality and Resistance
Political Communication and Mass Media
Summary
Analysis
In this chapter’s epigraph from Zero Hour, Berzelius Windrip compares himself to Jesus and claims to hate attending public meetings. Then, the chapter begins in late July, as Doremus Jessup awakens to a thunderstorm and realizes that Windrip is about to be nominated for the presidency at the Democratic Party convention in Cleveland. The party is down to four candidates. The three besides Windrip hold rallies outside the convention.
As always, the chapter’s actual events immediately belie Windrip’s quote: despite claiming to hate public meetings, he obviously craves the power and attention that comes with them. Meanwhile, the thunderstorm in Vermont clearly represents the coming political turmoil. Lewis’s heavy-handed foreshadowing is designed less to create suspense than to point out how powerless and frightened Doremus Jessup feels in the face of the nation’s dangerous political trends.
Themes
When Colonel Dewey Haik formally nominates Windrip, he asks everyone to refrain from chanting the senator’s name. A procession of Civil War and World War I veterans walk down the aisle in the convention center. Windrip bows to them and cries while the band plays patriotic songs. The veterans hold up pro-Windrip signs, and the crowd applauds thunderously. Behind them in the procession are poor families, dressed in rags and also holding up pro-Windrip signs. And behind them, the last man in the procession is Bishop Paul Peter Prang.
Haik’s fake humility couldn’t contrast more with Windrip’s showy (but equally fake) procession. This irony shows not only that Windrip’s campaign is fundamentally based on deception, but also how easily people can be deceived—especially as part of a mass political movement. Each group in the staged procession represents one of Windrip’s key constituencies: the military, the poor, and the religious traditionalists.
Themes
The audience cheers Windrip for four hours. But first, Mrs. Adelaide Tarr Gimmitch sings a patriotic version of “Yankee Doodle,” with special lyrics about Windrip. (The song is all over the radio, and the country, by evening.) She also sings Windrip’s more serious anthem, “Bring Out the Old-time Musket,” which was written by Lee Sarason and the polymath Dr. Hector Macgoblin. The song compares Windrip to Abraham Lincoln and calls for the U.S. to conquer the whole world. As Doremus Jessup listens to it on the radio, he predicts that Windrip will eventually trade the old veterans for fresh young soldiers. He hears a menacing thunderclap outside.
Gimmitch’s songs again show why it’s so dangerous to turn politics into feel-good entertainment. The songs create a cult of personality (a heightened sense of idealization) around Windrip, encouraging listeners to cheer him on as a person while ignoring what he plans and does as an actual leader. For instance, “Bring Out the Old-time Musket” explicitly calls for the U.S. to invade other countries (which would inevitably start another world war). But by presenting this proposal for endless war through a song, Gimmitch encourages Windrip’s followers to support it because they feel an emotional connection with it—not because they actually think that fighting more wars is a good idea.
Themes
By evening, the balloting is deadlocked between Windrip and President Roosevelt. Doremus Jessup brings Foolish the dog to Father Perefixe’s home, where the Rev. Mr. Falck, Buck Titus, Louis Rotenstern, Dr. Greenhill, and R.C. Crowley have assembled. The men listen to the convention on the radio and complain about their wives making them sleep early. At the convention, Colonel Haik announces that Buzz Windrip is going to bed, then reads a letter explaining his platform: he opposes banks but supports bankers, wants to raise wages and lower prices, favors unions but opposes strikes, and wants the U.S. to be economically self-sufficient but also conquer the world.
Windrip’s platform consists entirely of several absurd contradictions. It’s simply impossible to do everything he proposes (such as supporting labor unions without allowing them to strike). Clearly, Windrip isn’t planning to actually enact this agenda—instead, he’s just trying to win votes by promising everyone exactly what they want. While real-life fascists are generally more subtle, Lewis makes Windrip’s dishonesty particularly blatant in order to show his readers why it’s so important to think critically about real-life political candidates and their promises.
Themes
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In the early morning, the convention officially nominates Berzelius Windrip for president. Doremus Jessup, Buck Titus, Father Perefixe, the Rev. Mr. Falck, and Foolish the dog are devastated. When Jessup returns home, Shad Ledue is chopping wood. He’s at work on time, which is unusual, and he tells Jessup that he’s voting for Windrip, who will immediately give everyone money. Ledue plans to spend his on starting a chicken farm. Jessup points out that Ledue killed his chickens last time, and Ledue replies that there were too few to be worth caring for. Jessup comments that Ledue has given Windrip his imprimatur (stamp of approval), but Ledue doesn’t understand.
Shad Ledue’s response to the nomination gives Jessup (and the reader) a close-up look at the psychology of fascism—and particularly the unique way it would work in the U.S. Even though Windrip’s platform makes it impossible to discern his true goals and loyalties, Ledue is totally convinced that Windrip will personally look out for him. In other words, Windrip deliberately tailors his message to appeal to arrogant, greedy, naive individualists like Ledue. Lewis suggests that, for better or worse, such people abound in the United States and would likely form the base for a fascist political movement.
Themes
