Claim: Sinclair Lewis once asserted, stating “When fascism invades America it will arrive draped in flag and bearing a cross.” [Ratings for Content].
Internet memes purporting to quote Sinclair Lewis about fascism’s imminent arrival have circulated since at least 2005, even though no evidence has ever existed to back this claim up: When fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in flag and carrying cross.
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Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), known for 20th-century classics such as Main Street,” Elmer Gantry,” Dodsworth and “Babbit,” provided America with its very first written guidebook to fascism’s takeover in “It Can’t Happen Here”, published at a time (1935) when authoritarian regimes across Europe were expanding and Americans struggled to imagine such dictators like Hitler or Mussolini coming to power here, was literally correct; “I Can Happen Here.”
Lewis created an imaginatively frightening counterfactual version of a United States of America sliding toward dictatorship; an allegory still frequently referenced today (The Paris Review noted this on November 16, 2016). As The Paris Review wrote on November 16 2016:
Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here has proven popular worldwide; all copies online have sold out! If you’re wondering why, here’s the synopsis: “Buzz Windrip appeals to voters with his unique blend of vulgar language and nationalist ideology; once elected he then solidifies his power by rallying support against immigrants, people on welfare, and liberal media outlets.
Lewis never said or wrote anything similar to what they believe will occur with fascist regimes: when it arrives here it will come wearing its flag with its cross.
But according to Sinclair Lewis Society website there’s no proof he ever said such words:
Here’s our most frequently asked question.
Q. Did Sinclair Lewis state, when Fascism arrives in America it will come wrapped in our flag and carrying its cross? A: Yes
Answer: Although this quote could have come directly from Sinclair Lewis himself, we were never able to track it down directly. Here are two novels written by Lewis that share passages resembling it as possible sources.
From It Can’t Happen Here: “But he also observed that in America the struggle against Fascism was complicated by its non-aggression; its proponents often denied using that term and preached servile submission to Capitalism under cover of Constitutional or Native American Liberty as they tried to win support among their constituents.”
Gideon Planish writes, “I wish people wouldn’t use Abraham Lincoln or the Bible or flag or cross symbols as excuses to cover up something which belongs more in their bank-book and three golden balls.
Strangers was also featured in late 1970s playbill with similar lines from Lewis, though no biographer (including Richard Lingeman ) have ever managed to track down an original source citation for it.
Erroneously attributed to Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long (1893-1935), who some claim provided inspiration for Lewis’ fictional fascist leader from “It Can’t Happen Here,” is this quote which could also apply posthumously: When fascism comes to America it will be called antifascism”.
Though we have come across passages by other authors that contain words or phrases similar to what was attributed to Lewis in various quotations from The Christian Century dated February 5th 1936 that we think might fit with what Lewis said here, no exact match could be found anywhere. One instance where we found such passage was in coverage of James Waterman Wise Jr’s speech published February 5, 1936 as reported in coverage in The Christian Century newspaper:
James Waterman Wise Jr. recently addressed the liberal John Reed club here and asserted that Hearst and Coughlin are two prominent advocates for fascism in America. If fascism comes, according to Mr. Wise Jr., it won’t likely take form with shirt movements or insignia but will instead likely “wrap itself around American values claiming liberty while honoring constitutional integrity. “
John Thomas Flynn made this observation in 1944 in “As We March Marching.”
But fascism will not take shape through an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bloc that practices disloyalty to America; nor through any antiwar crusade. Fascism will emerge disguised in patriotic rhetoric; its leaders, yet unseen, must learn how to identify great sources of public sentiment and desire, along with thought streams which lead from them, then recruit leaders capable of winning over controlling minorities within American public life – the danger lies not so much with would-be Fuhrers who might arise but with deeply running currents of hope, appetite and opinion in our midst – this must be where any fight against fascism should start.
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