It is fashionable nowadays to reference Sinclair Lewis’ book “it can’t happen here” in public discourse about America’s evolving police state. For me these comparisons seem simplistic. They also assume, the logic goes, that before now it hasn’t happened here. This is a convenient forgetting of history.
Will this generation stand against the reactionary tide like their predecessors?
Who Spoke Up? – Voices of Protest Against the War in Vietnam
Remember also: First Red Scare (1917-1920); Eugene Debs imprisoned for speech against WWI (1918); Second Red Scare (1950-1954); House Un-American Activities Committee (1938-1969); Hollywood and other blacklists (1947-1961); Executive Order 9835 “Loyalty Order” (1947); J. Edgar Hoover (1935-1972); COINTELPRO (1956-1971), to name a few.
Parallel Narratives 