Fascism in America

[Garson O'Toole]

Months ago I was asked about a quotation attributed to Huey Long:

If fascism comes to America it would be on a program of 100 percent Americanism

While exploring this saying I found a cluster of quotations attributed
to Long and others (including Sinclair Lewis) about fascism coming to
America.

Here are some of the examples of this comment type starting in the 1930s:

If fascism comes to America
… it would come disguised as an anti-fascist movement.
… it would come masked as anti-Fascism.
… it will be called "democracy."
… it will be wrapped in an American flag.
… it will be wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross
… it will be called 100 percent Americanism.
… it will be called Americanism.

Sinclair Lewis wrote "It Can't Happen Here" about populism and fascism
in a satirical future America. So it is unsurprising that his name
would be attached to quotes of this type.

It was a large topic with many variants. I did not find substantive
evidence that Huey Long or Sinclair Lewis wrote or said one of these
quotes.

Garson

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 11:17 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Fascism in America
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying
> a cross." This has been floating around the Internet lately, attributed to
> Sinclair Lewis, which is apparently bogus as to the letter if not to the
> spirit. Does anyone have more information on this? (If this is somewhere in
> the archives, sorry, but I didn't find it.)
> DAD
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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