tracking down a quote
In my email signature I have the quote, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." It's widely attributed to Sinclair Lewis, but achinhibitor asked me whether I could find a citation. When I added the quote to my .sigfile, I remember finding something that seemed like a reasonably good source, but I can't find it again. I did, however, find some other interesting stuff.
I did find this discussion on someone's blog: Wikipedia et al. attribute it to Sinclair Lewis and say it's a variant (without the cross part) of something attributed to Huey Long, but there are no hard citations. Interesting. One of the related quotes Google pops up with is that "fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
Huey Long appears to have said this in the 1930s: "When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the American flag," and, when asked if fascism would come here, replied, "Yes, but we will call it anti-fascism." Which is kind of funny, considering how corrupt he was and how some people today say he had fascist tendencies himself (I would have to read up on it some more to know for sure, but I have certainly heard before than he had a stranglehold on his state's government). Perhaps Lewis was riffing on this. Hard to say.
Further down in that discussion is another great quote: Fascism will come at the hands of perfectly authentic Americans, as violently against Hitler and Mussolini as the next one, but who are convinced that the present economic system is washed up and that the present political system in America has outlived its usefulness and who wish to commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering in the affairs of the states and cities; taking part in the management of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of great national banker and investor, borrowing millions every year and spending them on all sorts of projects through which such a government can paralyze opposition and command public support; marshaling great armies and navies at crushing costs to support the industry of war and preparation for war which will become our greatest industry; and adding to all this the most romantic adventures in global planning, regeneration, and domination all to be done under the authority of a powerfully centralized government in which the executive will hold in effect all the powers with Congress reduced to the role of a debating society. There is your fascist. And the sooner America realizes this dreadful fact the sooner it will arm itself to make an end of American fascism masquerading under the guise of the champion of democracy.
-- John T. Flynn, 1944
Tangentially, it appears that there was a fascist publication started in 1942 called The Cross and Flag. Interesting, eh? It was co-founded by Gerald Winrod, who established a very conservative group called Defenders of the Christian Faith, and a minister named Gerald Smith, who was a key developer of the Christian Identity religion. Whee!
So, anyway, it's a tricky quote to pin down exactly, but it appears to have been said in the 1930s and seems plausible that some variant was said by Lewis. Or, as achinhibitor suggests, quote drift and/or urban legend could be at work. Still, it's a good quote, and timely.
I did find this discussion on someone's blog: Wikipedia et al. attribute it to Sinclair Lewis and say it's a variant (without the cross part) of something attributed to Huey Long, but there are no hard citations. Interesting. One of the related quotes Google pops up with is that "fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
Huey Long appears to have said this in the 1930s: "When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the American flag," and, when asked if fascism would come here, replied, "Yes, but we will call it anti-fascism." Which is kind of funny, considering how corrupt he was and how some people today say he had fascist tendencies himself (I would have to read up on it some more to know for sure, but I have certainly heard before than he had a stranglehold on his state's government). Perhaps Lewis was riffing on this. Hard to say.
Further down in that discussion is another great quote: Fascism will come at the hands of perfectly authentic Americans, as violently against Hitler and Mussolini as the next one, but who are convinced that the present economic system is washed up and that the present political system in America has outlived its usefulness and who wish to commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering in the affairs of the states and cities; taking part in the management of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of great national banker and investor, borrowing millions every year and spending them on all sorts of projects through which such a government can paralyze opposition and command public support; marshaling great armies and navies at crushing costs to support the industry of war and preparation for war which will become our greatest industry; and adding to all this the most romantic adventures in global planning, regeneration, and domination all to be done under the authority of a powerfully centralized government in which the executive will hold in effect all the powers with Congress reduced to the role of a debating society. There is your fascist. And the sooner America realizes this dreadful fact the sooner it will arm itself to make an end of American fascism masquerading under the guise of the champion of democracy.
-- John T. Flynn, 1944
Tangentially, it appears that there was a fascist publication started in 1942 called The Cross and Flag. Interesting, eh? It was co-founded by Gerald Winrod, who established a very conservative group called Defenders of the Christian Faith, and a minister named Gerald Smith, who was a key developer of the Christian Identity religion. Whee!
So, anyway, it's a tricky quote to pin down exactly, but it appears to have been said in the 1930s and seems plausible that some variant was said by Lewis. Or, as achinhibitor suggests, quote drift and/or urban legend could be at work. Still, it's a good quote, and timely.