Note to wife:
Sinclair Lewis published It Can’t Happen Here in 1935. Many have noticed the striking similarities between Donald Trump and the novel’s main character – a charismatic con man with a boorish personality who gets elected president by exploiting Americans’ racist fears and economic anxiety.
Let’s hope the similarities end there, because what follows is a power grab that turns the county into a fascist regime. The new president dissolves Congress, outlaws dissent, forms a paramilitary gang of thugs that terrorizes citizens, puts political opponents in concentration camps, and suppresses the rights of women and minorities. And he does this all in the guise of patriotism to restore America’s power.
It’s unlikely Trump will change the country in such an extremist way, but the tone he has set (not to mention his election) is eerily familiar.
P.S. That other guy in the cartoon is Mike Pence, our new vice president-elect. He played a key role in shoring up support among reluctant evangelicals, who typically vote Republican but were uncomfortable with Trump personally. In 2016, like in the novel, that combined pitch of patriotism and religion worked brilliantly.