Oct 31, 2016 2 min read

Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, “It Can’t Happen Here,” “warned Americans that one of their native demagogues might be as dangerous as the European dictators who were then seizing power,” in the words of the editors of 1967’s “The American Tradition in Literature,” calling Lewis a “stalwart crusader against the encroaching materialism which tolerated moral slackness, vulgarity, ignorance, and narrow bigotry in conformity with a pattern of superficial success cheaply won.”

Does that mean Donald Trump and his supporters are fascists? You bet, and all of them are in the basket of deplorables, not just half.

Hillary Clinton’s right foot is in that basket, on the side with the half of Trump supporters she does not think are deplorable.

“We came, we saw, he died,” she crowed about Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi. She takes pride in her recommendation that Navy Seals kill Osama bin Laden, and, as president, will lead the cheering when her order for a military hit on a high profile enemy of America is successful.

President Clinton’s left foot will lead the Revolution of 2016 when she takes office early next year. A Republican-dominated Senate or House of Representatives will provide cover for her to ignore the Democratic platform and her campaign promises. But if the hard work of Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters results in a progressive Democratic Congress, the opportunity President Obama missed in his first two years to urgently address climate change, economic inequality, and social justice will again present itself.

Jim Greenwood

Washington