The rise of fascism after WWI is often portrayed as big government dominating the people’s wishes, but that is far from accurate. The Third Reich was entirely a product of fascist forces functioning in an environment where the people were disadvantaged by a ruling class and willingly gave their permission and support to those forces, however misinformed they might have been. Whenever people are faced with seemingly overwhelming odds against them they will gravitate to authoritarians who promise to remove their stress. Those authoritarians commonly come from outside the political establishment or have separated themselves from that establishment.

The current similarities of America and those previous examples of authoritarian fascism are entirely too striking to ignore. In fact, the similarities almost make it appear scripted. The fact that we’ve seen it before makes the play no less dangerous or sufficiently predictable to convince the emotionally reactionary populace. They will take the bait of nationalism, thinly disguised racism, that supports their claim to privileged exceptionalism and back it up with the constant undercurrent of a threat of violence against the intellectuals they feel most threatened by.