‘When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” It is not clear who said or wrote this first. Some think is was Nobel Prize author Sinclair Lewis. It clearly came out of the Depression in the 1930s, when fascism was growing in Europe and to some extent in the United States.

The election of FDR in 1932 is reminiscent of the election of 2020 in many ways.

Back then the country and the world were in economic turmoil, with many out of work; truth was hard to find, and many in the United States felt the quick fix was with strongman leaders like those in Germany and Italy. These ultranationalist leaders felt problems could be blamed on minority ethnic groups and immigrants, and their success was based on propagating fear against these people.

Roosevelt was able to unite the country in many ways and pull us out of the Depression without using the fascist example of fear, saying in his 1933 inaugural address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

It was not easy and it took time, creative legislation, and progressive programs like the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security, and New Deal programs that helped everyone.

Now it is not fascism abroad we have to fear, but the draw of fascism in our very own country, again offering a quick fix.

I’ve noticed over the last year that former president Donald Trump seems to surround himself (almost wraps himself) in flags, and last summer when he walked across forcefully cleared Lafayette Square during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations he was carrying a Christian Bible. Some of his Christian followers feel making America great again means carrying a Christian cross or Bible, professing that America was founded as a purely Christian nation. However, this is something George Washington strongly opposed and made sure didn’t happen.

Historian Jon Meacham has recently said, “History is the only data set we have about where we are and where we should go.” The warning quote to us from the 1930s now resounds to me in the persona of Donald Trump and his followers. The followers were not wearing brown shirts or goose stepping on Jan. 6, but the message was the same. American’s multiethnic future is so terrifying to Trump, his followers, and some in Congress that they have created fear and given up on truth and the rule of law.

I hope President Joe Biden, like FDR, will make us believe again that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself and that truth will prevail. While it won’t be easy, it will work if we realize how close we’ve come to fascism and begin the hard work of not fearing each other.

The emphasis at the recent inauguration was on toning down the rhetoric, finding common goals, perusing facts and science, and most importantly listening to one other. These are the best ways to prevent fear and are in my mind a great start.

(Nick Perencevich lives in Concord.)