--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real…" description: "\"“Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!\" \"Nonsense! Nonsense!\" snorted Tasbrough. \"That couldn't happen here in America, not p..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg" --- # Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist… ![“Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!" "Nonsense! Nonsense!" snorted Tasbrough. "That couldn't happen here in America, not possibly! We're a country of freemen." "The answer to that," suggested Doremus Jessup, "if Mr. Falck will forgive me, is 'the hell it can't!' Why…” quote by Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg) > ““Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!" "Nonsense! Nonsense!" snorted Tasbrough. "That couldn't happen here in America, not possibly! We're a country of freemen." "The answer to that," suggested Doremus Jessup, "if Mr. Falck will forgive me, is 'the hell it can't!' Why, there's no country in the world that can get more hysterical—yes, or more obsequious!—than America. Look how Huey Long became absolute monarch over Louisiana, and how the Right Honorable Mr. Senator Berzelius Windrip owns his State. Listen to Bishop Prang and Father Coughlin on the radio—divine oracles, to millions. Remember how casually most Americans have accepted Tammany grafting and Chicago gangs and the crookedness of so many of President Harding's appointees? Could Hitler's bunch, or Windrip's, be worse? Remember the Kuklux Klan? Remember our war hysteria, when we called sauerkraut 'Liberty cabbage' and somebody actually proposed calling German measles 'Liberty measles'? And wartime censorship of honest papers? Bad as Russia! Remember our kissing the—well, the feet of Billy Sunday, the million-dollar evangelist, and of Aimée McPherson, who swam from the Pacific Ocean clear into the Arizona desert and got away with it? Remember Voliva and Mother Eddy?... Remember our Red scares and our Catholic scares, when all well-informed people knew that the O.G.P.U. were hiding out in Oskaloosa, and the Republicans campaigning against Al Smith told the Carolina mountaineers that if Al won the Pope would illegitimatize their children? Remember Tom Heflin and Tom Dixon? Remember when the hick legislators in certain states, in obedience to William Jennings Bryan, who learned his biology from his pious old grandma, set up shop as scientific experts and made the whole world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of evolution?... Remember the Kentucky night-riders? Remember how trainloads of people have gone to enjoy lynchings? Not happen here? Prohibition—shooting down people just because they might be transporting liquor—no, that couldn't happen in America ! Why, where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!”” [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage sat American hypocrisy, pointing out that fear‑driven politics and moral panic are not unique to any one nation. **In simple terms:** America isn’t immune to hysteria and authoritarianism. Key Takeaway Recognize and challenge fear‑based rhetoric. Themes hypocrisy politics fear authoritarianism media history Mood critical reflective skeptical Type satirical historical political When to use this quote - political debate - media analysis - historical study - civic education - activism Key Concepts populism propaganda scare tactics political manipulation social conformity Questions to Reflect On - How does fear shape political decisions? - What safeguards can prevent authoritarian drift? A Different Perspective The satire may overgeneralize and ignore positive aspects of American civil society. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [America](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/) [Democracy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/democracy/) [Dictatorships](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dictatorships/) [Fascism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fascism/) [Fascist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fascist/) [Hysterics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hysterics/) [Pacific ocean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pacific-ocean/) [United states of america](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/united-states-of-america/) [Usa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/usa/) [Whole world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/whole-world/) ## Related quotes > [Who is the bad guy? Is America possibly the bad guy?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mandy-patinkin/who-is-the-bad-guy-is-america-possibly-the-bad-guy/) [Mandy Patinkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mandy-patinkin/) > [“Remember our Red scares and our Catholic scares, when all well-informed people knew that the O.G.P.U. were hiding out in Oskaloosa, and the Republicans…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/remember-our-red-scares-and-our-catholic-scares-when-all-well/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“The reign of tears is over,” proclaimed evangelist Billy Sunday in Virginia, during a mock funeral for John Barelycorn, a fictional character and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-river-editors/the-reign-of-tears-is-over-proclaimed-evangelist-billy-sunday-in/) [Charles River Editors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-river-editors/) > [“There was also a deliberate exploitation of prejudiced mentalities among their listeners by revivalist preachers such as Billy Sunday. Above all, there was a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-river-editors/there-was-also-a-deliberate-exploitation-of-prejudiced-mentalities/) [Charles River Editors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-river-editors/) > [... I see the country going fascist. We have been going that route a long, long time. A lot of things the country has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-walker/i-see-the-country-going-fascist-we-have-been-going-that-route-a-long/) [Margaret Walker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-walker/) > [I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/i-have-often-thought-that-if-a-rational-fascist-dictatorship-were-to/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [So you know what we have to do is stop looking for leadership from the top, because the least among us make their way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terence-mckenna/so-you-know-what-we-have-to-do-is-stop-looking-for-leadership-from/) [Terence McKenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terence-mckenna/) > [“Propaganda campaigns in general have been closely attuned to elite interests. The Red scare of 1919-20 have served well to abort the union-organizing drive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/propaganda-campaigns-in-general-have-been-closely-attuned-to-elite/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [“A skeptic of all sentimentality, she has a witty, rueful voice that gives a deadpan appraisal of the past and present. We see the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ron-charles/a-skeptic-of-all-sentimentality-she-has-a-witty-rueful-voice-that/) Ron Charles > [“On the labour front in 1919 there was an unprecedented number of strikes involving many millions of workers. One of the lager strikes was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-l-doctorow-2/on-the-labour-front-in-1919-there-was-an-unprecedented-number-of/) [E.L. Doctorow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-l-doctorow-2/) > [Labor has been severely undermined, but that's happened before. In the 1920s, the labor movement was virtually crushed, in large part by Wilson's Red…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/labor-has-been-severely-undermined-but-that-s-happened-before-in-the/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [ “The Salem \[witch\] trials…can be seen as an example of the propensity of the American people to be convulsed by spasms of self-righteous rage… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-johnson/the-salem-witch-trials-can-be-seen-as-an-example-of-the-propensity-of/) [Paul Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-johnson/) ## More by Sinclair Lewis > [“She found beauty in the children.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/she-found-beauty-in-the-children/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [What is Love? Listen! It is the rainbow that stands out, in all its glorious many-colored hues, illuminating and making glad again the dark…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/what-is-love-listen-it-is-the-rainbow-that-stands-out-in-all-its/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [When you think that most of us are doomed by divine grace to roast in hell, to say nothing of mortgages and hail and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/when-you-think-that-most-of-us-are-doomed-by-divine-grace-to-roast-in/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/he-loved-the-people-just-as-much-as-he-feared-and-detested-persons/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“He had expected that traditionally Republican Vermont would give him too drearily easy a task in preaching Trowbridge. What he found was a dismaying…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/he-had-expected-that-traditionally-republican-vermont-would-give-him/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“Day on day he waited. So much of a revolution for so many people is nothing but waiting. That is one reason why tourists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/day-on-day-he-waited-so-much-of-a-revolution-for-so-many-people-is/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“She continued it to Hugh, 'Darling, do you know what mother and you are going to find beyond the blue horizon rim?' 'What?' flatly.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/she-continued-it-to-hugh-darling-do-you-know-what-mother-and-you-are/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/is-it-possible-that-nobody-has-ever-known-that-there-never-has-been-a/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“I think perhaps we want a more conscientious life. We're tired of drudging and sleeping and dying. We're tired of always deferring hope to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/i-think-perhaps-we-want-a-more-conscientious-life-we-re-tired-of/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [It might be the doing of Satan, in whom Aaron anxiously believed with all of his being except, perhaps, his mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/it-might-be-the-doing-of-satan-in-whom-aaron-anxiously-believed-with/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“The author says one character's definition of a classic is any book he'd heard of before he was thirty.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/the-author-says-one-character-s-definition-of-a-classic-is-any-book/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“Like all males, he hated to confess ignorance by asking directions,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/like-all-males-he-hated-to-confess-ignorance-by-asking-directions/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/winter-is-not-a-season-it-s-an-occupation/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“Author sees the "congested idealism" of the generally discontent as reservoir that will support centralized power even while disagreeing with many specific provisions.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/author-sees-the-congested-idealism-of-the-generally-discontent-as/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) > [“The poor we have always with us, and the purpose of the Lord in providing the poor is to enable us of the better…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/the-poor-we-have-always-with-us-and-the-purpose-of-the-lord-in/) [Sinclair Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) [Explore all 196 Sinclair Lewis quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sinclair-lewis/) ## More America quotes > [The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion - a major victory…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/the-costs-of-the-bush-obama-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-are-now/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-lang/young-men-especially-in-america-write-to-me-and-ask-me-to-recommend-a/) [Andrew Lang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-lang/) > [Well, The Day the Earth Caught Fire was a story... I don't if anybody knows what it is but it was about... in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/val-guest/well-the-day-the-earth-caught-fire-was-a-story-i-don-t-if-anybody/) [Val Guest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/val-guest/) > [So here's what I want you to know, and here's what I want all our men and women in uniform to know: Because of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barack-obama/so-here-s-what-i-want-you-to-know-and-here-s-what-i-want-all-our-men/) [Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barack-obama/) > [Today, the world looks to America for leadership. And America looks to its Corps of Marines.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ronald-reagan/today-the-world-looks-to-america-for-leadership-and-america-looks-to/) [Ronald Reagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ronald-reagan/) > [The image of blacks usually is one of people who are suffering from hunger, unemployment, and poverty. The idea of them as agents and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/grace-lee-boggs/the-image-of-blacks-usually-is-one-of-people-who-are-suffering-from/) [Grace Lee Boggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/grace-lee-boggs/) > [ I'll smoke, I'll cough, I'll get the tumors, I'll die, deal? Thank you America. \[salutes\] ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-hicks/i-ll-smoke-i-ll-cough-i-ll-get-the-tumors-i-ll-die-deal-thank-you/) [Bill Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-hicks/) > [America is a democracy and has no Hitler, but I am afraid for her future; there are hard times ahead for the American people,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/america-is-a-democracy-and-has-no-hitler-but-i-am-afraid-for-her/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [I'm gonna bring America together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-trump/i-m-gonna-bring-america-together/) [Donald Trump](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-trump/) > [In the nineteenth century some parts of the world were unexplored, but there was almost no restriction on travel.:; Up to 1914 you did…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/in-the-nineteenth-century-some-parts-of-the-world-were-unexplored-but/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [We need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others. Remember, under a Trump administration it's called America first. Remember that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-trump/we-need-a-system-that-serves-our-needs-not-the-needs-of-others/) [Donald Trump](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-trump/) > [America, you're sending girls a mixed message. On one hand, you're saying to have positive body image and love who we are; on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adora-svitak/america-you-re-sending-girls-a-mixed-message-on-one-hand-you-re/) [Adora Svitak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adora-svitak/) > [You live overseas, you see these exotic places and you want to know about them. But, weirdly, it also made me homesick for all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-jennings/you-live-overseas-you-see-these-exotic-places-and-you-want-to-know/) [Ken Jennings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-jennings/) > [Freedom in every sense but primarily political sense, a rise in repression that stems from a repression of sexuality. It's AIDS, it's herpes, it's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-nicholson/freedom-in-every-sense-but-primarily-political-sense-a-rise-in/) [Jack Nicholson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-nicholson/) > [“In American terms, the accomplishment of Genghis Khan might be understood if the United States, instead of being created by a group of educated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-weatherford/in-american-terms-the-accomplishment-of-genghis-khan-might-be/) [Jack Weatherford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-weatherford/) [Browse all 20,382 America quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!\" \"Nonsense! Nonsense!\" snorted Tasbrough. \"That couldn't happen here in America, not possibly! We're a country of freemen.\" \"The answer to that,\" suggested Doremus Jessup, \"if Mr. Falck will forgive me, is 'the hell it can't!' Why, there's no country in the world that can get more hysterical—yes, or more obsequious!—than America. Look how Huey Long became absolute monarch over Louisiana, and how the Right Honorable Mr. Senator Berzelius Windrip owns his State. Listen to Bishop Prang and Father Coughlin on the radio—divine oracles, to millions. Remember how casually most Americans have accepted Tammany grafting and Chicago gangs and the crookedness of so many of President Harding's appointees? Could Hitler's bunch, or Windrip's, be worse? Remember the Kuklux Klan? Remember our war hysteria, when we called sauerkraut 'Liberty cabbage' and somebody actually proposed calling German measles 'Liberty measles'? And wartime censorship of honest papers? Bad as Russia! Remember our kissing the—well, the feet of Billy Sunday, the million-dollar evangelist, and of Aimée McPherson, who swam from the Pacific Ocean clear into the Arizona desert and got away with it? Remember Voliva and Mother Eddy?... Remember our Red scares and our Catholic scares, when all well-informed people knew that the O.G.P.U. were hiding out in Oskaloosa, and the Republicans campaigning against Al Smith told the Carolina mountaineers that if Al won the Pope would illegitimatize their children? Remember Tom Heflin and Tom Dixon? Remember when the hick legislators in certain states, in obedience to William Jennings Bryan, who learned his biology from his pious old grandma, set up shop as scientific experts and made the whole world laugh itself sick by forbidding the teaching of evolution?... Remember the Kentucky night-riders? Remember how trainloads of people have gone to enjoy lynchings? Not happen here? Prohibition—shooting down people just because they might be transporting liquor—no, that couldn't happen in America ! Why, where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sinclair Lewis" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real-fascist-dictatorship/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "America" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sinclair-lewis/wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real-fascist-dictatorship/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/881/sinclair-lewis-1945_america_wait-till-buzz-takes-charge-of-us-a-real_2798905.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. 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