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 a quote from Zero Hour, Windrip claims he’s not particularly educated—except about the Bible, the law, and writers like the fascist and occultist William Dudley Pelley, whom he considers a great patriot. Then, the chapter begins with Windrip’s 15-point platform: first, a board appointed by the president will control the nation’s entire financial system and nationalize any industries it sees fit. Second, a similar executive-controlled board will decide which labor unions are legitimate and incorporate them into the government, while banning fake, communist, and radical unions. Third, the government will protect private enterprise and property. Fourth, Windrip will protect freedom of religion—but he will also ban Jews, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who refuses to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag from working in government, education, law, or medicine.
Windrip’s platform makes his real intentions clear: he wants to nationalize industries not for the whole country’s benefit, but for his own personal benefit. Similarly, his labor proposal might initially appear to benefit unions, but actually, it really just benefits himself, by giving him absolute power to ban any unions that oppose him and his allies. The same is true of his religion policy: he pays lip service to religious freedom, then promises to severely and arbitrarily restrict it in order to maintain cultural uniformity. In contrast, Windrip does propose absolute protections for private property, which signals to the wealthy that he really will protect them.
Themes
Fifth, Windrip’s government will place a cap on personal income ($500,000), wealth ($3 million), and inheritance ($2 million). It will tax away anything above this cap. Sixth, the government will also cap profits from war-related manufacturing at six percent (and also take anything above that amount). Seventh, the government will gradually expand the U.S. military until it’s the largest in the world. Eighth, Congress will immediately double the amount of money in circulation.
Windrip’s wealth cap proposal contradicts his promise to respect all private property rights—and this makes it clear that he will end up discarding at least some of his platform. His plan to expand the military would have seemed far more radical to Lewis’s readers than it will seem to modern Americans. This is because the U.S. did dramatically expand its military in the decade after this book was published (due to World War II), and because the U.S. has by far the world’s largest military budget as of 2022. However, in the 1930s, when the U.S. spent very little on defense, Windrip’s proposal would have meant dramatically changing the U.S.’s role in the world and the military’s role in American society. Finally, modern readers can likely predict that instantly doubling the money supply will cause massive inflation and widespread economic devastation for workers.
Themes
Ninth, the government will condemn anti-Jewish discrimination and tolerate Jewish people who assimilate to American culture and support Windrip. Tenth, Black Americans will be banned from voting, public office, law, medicine, and education. Each Black family’s income will be capped at $10,000 per year, but hardworking Black seniors can petition a board of white people to request pensions. Eleventh, the government will create a board to evaluate social security and unemployment plans. Twelfth, women will be removed from the workforce so that they can become mothers and homemakers. Thirteenth, communists, socialists, anarchists, conscientious objectors to war, and pro-Russian activists will be punished with decades of hard labor or execution.
Again, Windrip pays lip service to liberal values of tolerance and freedom, while actually promising intolerance and persecution. His empty promises might convince some concerned citizens that he’s not as dangerous as he appears, but the groups his policies affect will clearly understand what they mean. Jewish people will face consequences if they fail to toe the government line, women and Black people will lose all their rights and return to a state of servitude, and political dissidents will immediately be labeled as communists and silenced. Tellingly, Windrip doesn’t firmly commit to actually enacting his bold, popular pension reform proposals. This again confirms that his loyalties lie more with the elites he claims to hate than with the common working people who support him.
Themes
Fourteenth, the U.S. will pay all soldiers’ bonuses immediately as lump sums. And fifteenth, Congress will amend the Constitution to give the president absolute power over the government. Finally, an addendum to Windrip’s platform explains that all of his proposals, except the fifteenth, will only be enacted if the public supports them.
Windrip’s 15th point is Lewis’s satirical way of suggesting that any policies a fascist leader introduces are essentially meaningless, because without checks and balances on the leader’s power, those policies can be amended or revoked at any time. This point is by far the most important, because it shows that Windrip’s true goal is to seize absolute power for himself and dismantle the checks and balances that traditionally keep American democracy stable. After all, his addendum shows that everything else in his agenda is negotiable—besides his desire to become a dictator.
Themes
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Emma Jessup finds Windrip’s platform confusing and contradictory, but Doremus thinks it’s clear. Windrip will bring big business to his side by threatening them with taxes and nationalization. He wants to take over unions and protect the property of businesses and churches who support him. Companies will get around his restrictions on war profits, and they’ll take advantage of the inflation he creates by expanding the money supply to pay off their debt for cheap. He will take away the rights of women, Jewish people, Black people, and all of his opponents (whom he’ll call “Communists”). Windrip’s advisory board will never actually create a new social security system, but Congress will hand him absolute power over the whole government. Windrip and his inner circle will eliminate their opposition and set up a dictatorship.
Emma and Doremus Jessup’s opposite reactions show why critical thinking is key to stopping tyranny. Many Americans might respond to Windrip’s platform at face value, like Emma, because they assume that it only represents Windrip’s sincere policy proposals. But others, like Doremus, read between the lines and recognize that the platform’s purpose is largely rhetorical—it’s designed to project a specific image, as much as advance specific policy goals. In reality, Doremus realizes, all of Windrip’s plans to help ordinary people are merely optional, while all of his plans to restructure the government and give himself more power will be irreversible. In other words, Windrip’s platform is just a toolbox for creating a totalitarian dictatorship further on down the line.
Themes
Doremus Jessup declares that he has to do what he can to stop Windrip—but that he and his family might be shot for it. Emma asks him to be careful and worries about his carelessness. But Father Perefixe, Sissy, Lorinda Pike, and the housekeeper Mrs. Candy are furious about Windrip’s platform, too.
Once he realizes that a Windrip dictatorship is coming, Jessup starts asking the crucial questions that will occupy him for the rest of the novel: what can he do to stop Windrip? How can dissidents rebel against a dictatorship that does not protect their rights to free speech and assembly? How should Jessup balance his duty to fight the dictatorship, for the sake of morality and his nation, with his duty to protect his family?
Themes
