Hmm …

… American Freedom: Sinclair Lewis and the Open Road | The Public Domain Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Lewis follows Plato in pointing to democracy itself as the cause for the slide to tyranny. 

This used to be considered one of Plato's less attractive views, but it is apparently now useful for those resentful  of election results.

Free Air is not kind to the petty and conniving rural dwellers, but Lewis’ most devastating take on small-town life appears in Main Street. Lewis, a product of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, rails against the idea that these remote burgs are the source of all that is good. Rather, they infect their residents with “the village virus”, symptomized by a firm ignorance, self-satisfaction, and general intolerance of anyone who doesn’t look or think like they do.

Hey, those people really are deplorable. O tempora, O mores.