It Can't Happen Here

“People will think they're electing him to create more economic security. Then watch the Terror! God knows there's been enough indication that we can have tyranny in America.” 

This quote is an early example of Jessup, standing in for author Lewis, arguing that It Can Happen Here, as he gives examples of forms of American hysteria that serve as proof that Americans are no more immune to totalitarianism than those of any other country.

“The Executive has got to have a freer hand and be able to move quick in an emergency, and not be tied down by a lot of dumb shyster-lawyer congressmen.”

This demonstrates a key tenant of totalitarian rule: that the political institutions of democratic liberalism are insufficient for dealing with modern challenges as they become infected with corrupt actors who prevent the actions necessary for solving problems. It follows in the totalitarian mindset that the only solution is for a single person with a strong hand to sweep away the swamp of career politicians and create a new form of government.

“There is no Peace! For more than a year now, the League of Forgotten Men has warned the politicians, the whole government, that we are sick unto death of being the Dispossessed—and that, at last, we are more than fifty million strong; no whimpering horde, but with the will, the voices, the votes to enforce our sovereignty!

This demonstrates the many actual resentments that fueled Windrip’s rise. Rather than seeing him as a unique actor, it reveals that Windrip is only a symptom of the deeper issues that have affected the country through years, particularly during the Great Depression. It shows that in order for liberal democracy to survive, politicians must take seriously the issues affecting the lower classes, lest they turn to a demagogue like Windrip.

“Buzz Windrip bowed—bowed—bowed and tried to smile, while tears started from his eyes and he sobbed helplessly, and the audience began to sob with him.” 

Here, we see Windrip’s charismatic power and skill in winning over crowds of voters. His deferential behavior also stands in stark contrast with the man he will become by the end of the novel. The respectful, subservient action of bowing will be antithetical to the despot he fashions himself to be.

“He was an actor of genius. There was no more overwhelming actor on the stage, in the motion pictures, nor even in the pulpit.” 

This interpretation of Windrip by Jessup is telling in how it contrasts him with others. First, it makes clear that Windrip is not a politician, unlike his opponents Trowbridge and FDR. His skill is not in advocating policy, but in creating an emotional response in an audience, much like an actor. Second, it serves to contrast Windrip with other totalitarian leaders. Unlike Hitler or Stalin, Windrip is not portrayed as presenting a grand new vision of society, but rather as a con man of uncommon persuasion. 

“Quietly, steadfastly, speaking on the radio and in a few great halls, he explained that he did advocate an enormously improved distribution of wealth, but that it must be achieved by steady digging and not by dynamite that would destroy more than it excavated. He wasn't particularly thrilling. Economics rarely are, except when they have been dramatized by a Bishop, staged and lighted by a Sarason, and passionately played by a Buzz Windrip with rapier and blue satin tights.” 

This quote serves as an effective contrast between Windrip and his opponents. Trowbridge represents the typical establishment politician who is unable to deal with the atypical political environment produced by the Great Depression. In contrast, Windrip and his close advisors present politics as exciting and promise voters that all their problems can be solved simply by voting for them

“Something in the intensity with which Windrip looked at his audience, looked at all of them, his glance slowly taking them in from the highest perched seat to the nearest, convinced them that he was talking to each individual, directly and solely; that he wanted to take each of them into his heart; that he was telling them the truths, the imperious and dangerous facts, that had been hidden from them.” 

This shows Windrip’s uncommonly powerful skills as a con man and orator. Even the cynical Jessup is won over by Windrip’s speech and falls into a trance, awed by Windrip but then unable to recall what Windrip said, after the political rally is over. Windrip’s ability to make each individual feel individually recognized goes a long way toward winning the election.

“All the warring Solutions—except his, Doremus chuckled—were ferociously propagated by the Fanatics, the ‘Nuts.’” 

Here, we see a key moment in the evolution of Jessup’s political beliefs. After the election, he expresses in an editorial the extreme centrist position that all extreme beliefs are inherently wrong and only advocated by Fanatics and Nuts. This is contrasted later in the novel; while he never repudiates his strongly-liberal beliefs, he comes to accept that extreme solutions might be necessary to avert even greater injustices.

“It can't happen here, said even Doremus—even now.” 

This common refrain through the novel is notable here as it is the cynic Jessup finally saying it. Through the first section of the book, he is the one constantly told that It Can’t Happen Here, referring to a potential Windrip totalitarian government. However, once Windrip wins and begins acting as Jessup has predicted, Jessup finds that he himself cannot even comprehend what he is seeing.

“Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.” 

Windrip’s repression of African Americans, Jews, and women wins and maintains him support of working-class, white voters who are simply happy they are not the lowest rung on the totem pole and have someone to look down upon.

“‘All this trouble and the Corpos—They're going to do something to you and me. We'll become so roused up that—either we'll be desperate and really cling to each other and everybody else in the world can go to the devil or, what I'm afraid is more likely, we'll get so deep into rebellion against Windrip, we'll feel so terribly that we're standing for something, that we'll want to give up everything else for it, even give up you and me.” 

This quote represents how Windrip’s totalitarian regime so thoroughly penetrates the fabric of society that nothing is unaffected. Here, Jessup and Pike discuss their relationship and Lorinda predicts how it will be affected by their activities. Later, she leaves for Beecher Falls precisely to prevent this possibility. We also see here an example of Jessup drawing his revolutionary strength from Lorinda (in contrast to his wife, Emma) as she convinces him to publish his anti-Windrip editorial.

“The tyranny of this dictatorship isn't primarily the fault of Big Business, nor of the demagogues who do their dirty work. It's the fault of Doremus Jessup! Of all the conscientious, respectable, lazy-minded Doremus Jessups who have let the demagogues wriggle in, without fierce enough protest.” 

This is another key turning point in the evolution of Jessup’s political beliefs throughout the novel. Whereas earlier he had seen Windrip as a mere aberration and blamed fanatics in general, Jessup now comes to the realization that he bears responsibility for totalitarianism through his inaction. More broadly, Lewis argues that in order for liberal democracy to survive, citizens must remain politically informed and engaged and must vigorously struggle against totalitarianism before it can take root.

“So debated Doremus, like some hundreds of thousands of other craftsmen, teachers, lawyers, what-not, in some dozens of countries under a dictatorship, who were aware enough to resent the tyranny, conscientious enough not to take its bribes cynically, yet not so abnormally courageous as to go willingly to exile or dungeon or chopping-block—particularly when they ‘had wives and families to support.’” 

In the first section of the book, Jessup struggles to comprehend Windrip’s support, and in the second, he struggles to understand the lack of resistance to the consolidation of Windrip’s regime. However, here he realizes that these regimes survive because few people are willing to risk what they have to struggle against a regime that will likely kill or imprison them, let alone disrupt their day-to-day life. Neither Jessup nor Lewis views these people as evil; rather, Jessup makes a cynical observation that people are inherently selfish and that this fact allows evil men who run totalitarian regimes to thrive

“Under a tyranny, most friends are a liability. One quarter of them turn ‘reasonable’ and become your enemies, one quarter are afraid to stop and speak and one quarter are killed and you die with them. But the blessed final quarter keep you alive.” 

Continuing from the theme of the preceding quote, Jessup/Lewis describe people’s behavior under a totalitarian regime, such as those who join the regime to further their own interests, and those who are too afraid and selfish to do anything. Emphasized here is the theme of solidarity, which is crucial to Jessup’s development throughout the book. In particular, it emphasizes the importance of Jessup’s friends in his resistance cell, friends who not only keep him alive, but reinvigorate his passion and allow him to reach new heights. 

“On the streets, on trains, at theaters, men looked about to see who might be listening before they dared so much as say there was a drought in the West, for someone might suppose they were blaming the drought on the Chief!” 

This quote captures the penetration of all social spaces that occurs when a totalitarian regime takes power. In contrast to Windrip’s promises that he would restore a new era of American greatness and prosperity, people have now become too afraid to engage in leisure activities. This captures the sheer extent of surveillance under totalitarian regimes and the pervading sense of fear that it causes.

“If I ever hear that ‘can't make an omelet’ phrase again, I'll start doing a little murder myself! It's used to justify every atrocity under every despotism, Fascist or Nazi or Communist or American labor war. Omelet! Eggs! By God, sir, men's souls and blood are not eggshells for tyrants to break!” 

Jessup, speaking to his son, Philip, who has become a supporter of the regime, finally reaches his breaking point upon hearing this phrased used in debate. This again demonstrates Jessup’s fundamental liberal beliefs in the inherent rights of individual people that should never be subsumed to that of the state or grand utopian projects. Even though at this point Jessup has come to accept that violence and struggle are necessary against greater injustice, this shows that he still believes it important to not wave away individual rights in the name of the greater good, no matter what that greater good might be.

“No wonder a Dictator can keep us separate and all working for him!” 

This captures a recurring theme throughout the book: that a fragmented resistance allows totalitarianism to take hold and flourish. More specifically, this captures Jessup’s and Lewis’ critiques of communists for being overly-sectarian, as well as their refusal to work with less-radical groups in order to overthrow Windrip.

“The world's in chains, and I can't be free to love till I help tear them off.”

This quote serves as the finale to the relationship between Jessup and Pike. Throughout the book, the two are portrayed as much more compatible than Jessup and Emma; however, this also serves as the downfall of their relationship, as Pike’s strong political beliefs cause her to realize that she has to prioritize her work with the New Underground over her relationship with Jessup. Continuing a recurring theme throughout the book, this quote also demonstrates how totalitarianism so thoroughly infiltrates and corrupts all social relationships, as Lorinda frets that if things had been different, they could have stayed together and been happy.

“Thus had things gone in Germany, exactly thus in Soviet Russia, in Italy and Hungary and Poland, Spain and Cuba and Japan and China. Not very different had it been under the blessings of liberty and fraternity in the French Revolution.” 

This quote emphasizes a major theme of the novel: that all totalitarian regimes are inherently alike, and that American totalitarianism would not be any different than prior models. The invocation of the French Revolution also continues another theme of the book: that even ostensibly progressive movements can give rise to great spasms of unjust violence that violate the rights of the individual in the name of the greater good. 

“What conceivable reason could one have for seeking after righteousness in a world which so hated righteousness? Why do anything except eat and read and make love and provide for sleep that should be secure against disturbance by armed policemen?

He never did find any particularly good reason. He simply went on.” 

This quote captures the fundamental character of Jessup. Throughout the novel, he struggles with finding his passion; even before Windrip takes power, he is merely content with his life and his work. After Windrip takes over, he struggles to know what to do, engaging in some mild resistance but mostly wallowing in depression and misery over the state of the country. However, he later finds his passion through his resistance work with the New Underground and the solidarity he finds with his fellow anti-regime agents. By this point in the novel, he is unable to articulate why he is risking his life against the seemingly-unstoppable regime, instead of just playing along with the regime and enjoying a contented, safe life. Yet, he continues on doing his work because it’s the right thing to do.

“He was afraid that the world struggle today was not of Communism against Fascism, but of tolerance against the bigotry that was preached equally by Communism and Fascism. But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty. For they were thieves not only of wages but of honor. To their purpose they could quote not only Scripture but Jefferson.” 

Although a recurring theme of the book is the commonality between all totalitarian regimes, including a hypothetical American one, here Lewis suggests some characteristics that might distinguish them. In particular, it emphasizes that American fascists will reject the term but implement fascism anyways, in the name of traditional American values. Lewis suggests that the real danger are those, such as Sarason, who can twist the fundamental liberal ideals that America was built on into a justification for a totalitarian regime.

“If they found the whole crusade absurd, it may be stated in their defense that they regarded all wars always as absurd; in the baldness of the lying by both sides about the causes; in the spectacle of grown-up men engaged in the infantile diversions of dressing up in fancy clothes and marching to primitive music.” 

This quote captures Jessup’s anti-war beliefs as he reflects on the upcoming American war with Mexico, which has been concocted by Colonel Haik. The way in which Jessup describes war and the military as childish stands in stark contrast with the brutality of the totalitarian regime he has experienced firsthand. However, this quote emphasizes that Jessup’s fundamental liberal and anti-war beliefs have not been changed by his experiences. While he has come to realize that violence is necessary to struggle against greater injustices, he has not allowed himself to become a fanatic in his struggle against the regime. Finally, the use of humor is important here, as Windrip deployed comedy on the campaign trail in order to build support. By this point in the narrative, there is nothing resembling the strain of American humor once exhibited by the regime, and Jessup is instead shown to be the one carrying on that tradition.

“He set off on his new task of being a spy and professional hero without even any funny passwords to make the game romantic.” 

This quote serves as the completion of Jessup’s character arc. At the start of the novel, Jessup is an astute but disconnected observer of politics who tends not to get engaged. After wallowing in depression following Windrip’s election, he is able to find his passion in his resistance work, which coincides with the intensification of his relationship with Lorinda Pike. During this period, Jessup finds the whole thing quite romantic, and fantasizes about either his victory or death. However, by the closing stages of the novel, all vestiges of this romanticism have been stripped from him after the death of many of his friends, his separation from Lorinda, and his exile to Canada. Even without his romantic attachment to this spy work, Jessup decides to continue going on fighting the regime at great personal risk, simply because it is the right thing to do.