It can’t happen here

Is this a repeating pattern?

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.comThere’s a quote circulating around the world wide web, misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." According to The Sinclair Lewis Society, it sounds like something he would agree with but there’s no proof that he actually wrote or said it.

In Sinclair’s 1943 novel “Gideon Planish,” he wrote, "I just wish people wouldn't quote Lincoln or the Bible, or hang out the flag or the cross, to cover up something that belongs more to the bank-book and the three golden balls."

Gideon Planish is a status-seeker who gets involved in varying questionable for-profit philanthropic organizations in his quest for status without accountability. Part of his quest involves political aspirations. The three golden balls are a symbol of the financial profession.

Whoudathunk that 80 years later we’d be having the same conversation. Both quotes resonate as our flag and the cross are symbols held hostage by leaders who seek prominence with minimal (if any) accountability. And they shout about the threat of “they” coming after everything these symbols represent and everything we hold dear.

Similar sentiments were echoed in Germany in the early 30s and look what happened.

In Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here,” the fictional American politician Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip quickly becomes America’s first unadulterated dictator, serving as a parallel to Hitler’s rise to power. The novel was written in 1934, to put things in historical context. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933, soon transforming Germany into a dictatorship.

Back to Buzz Windrip: how does he become an autocrat? Using fear tactics, pushing the return of "traditional" values and draping them in the American flag and promising radical social and economic reform. And then after the election? He stages a self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of ruthless paramilitary forces.

Holy deja vu, Batman! Keep in mind that this was written in the mid-1930s.

According to Merriam Webster, the definition of fascism is; “A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

Fascism isn’t being told to eat your vegetables. Fascism isn’t getting pulled over in a 25 when you were driving 40. Fascism isn’t to be used as a descriptor of your first-world gripes. It’s a little bit more serious than that. And by a little we mean a lot, as in human lives and human rights being at stake.

It can’t happen here, can it?

Yet the two conservative candidates for governor are trying to one-up each other on their allegiance to Herr Trump and the North Dakota Republican Party is split between long-haul establishment Republicans and Trump-allegiant conservatives, making moderates, who are in the minority, look radical.

It worries me to see Tammy Miller’s campaign ads calling out Mexican cartels and the cartel involvement in North Dakota. Sure, the cartels are bad, everyone knows that. But is Lieutenant Governor Miller proposing to improve the situation? Or is her purpose to whip up fear, ethnocentrism and xenophobia?

I highly doubt Tammy Miller will track down dem bad guys with her shotgun, skunk skin hat and her ol’ faithful hound dawg Red.

During WWI, a fearful frenzy was stirred up due to the Bolshevik revolution and anti-German sentiment built up by nativist movements of the time. There were mass deportations of Germans in North Dakota out of fear there were German spies among our neighbors. And there were Japanese-American internment camps in North Dakota during WWII.

As North Dakota moves farther and farther right let us not forget; in 1926 Ku Klux Klan power peaked in Grand Forks once they assumed a 4/5 majority on the City Commission board, allowing them to oust a number of city employees they didn’t agree with.

In North Dakota, the KKK was primarily an anti-Catholic, pro-temperance, anti-immigrant movement. Their messages seeped into church pulpits and seats were secured thanks to anti-Catholic campaigns in a predominantly Protestant area. These klansmen weren’t just a handful of bumpkins coming to town on a Saturday. They were mostly prominent businessmen.

That same year the two klansmen on the school board aided in the approval of mandatory Bible readings at the school, according to William Hardwood’s article “The Ku Klux Klan in Grand Forks North Dakota,”according to William Hardwood’s article “The Ku Klux Klan in Grand Forks North Dakota,” which is accessible through South Dakota Historical Society Press. Fortunately the Klan’s influence started to wane closer to the end of that decade.

The moral of the story? Your flag and your faith were never meant to be weaponized. This is a repeating pattern on a local, regional, national and global level.

Be careful, Kelly and Tammy. Steer away from the world’s most famous deadbeat. Any career advantage will be temporary and you will go down in history as Benedict Arnold.