“We saw it in the 1930s in Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan; today it’s happened in Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, The Philippines and Brazil, and is well underway in Poland, India and multiple smaller countries.”

Thom Hartman, writing at Raw Story in The new ‘businessman’s conspiracy’ authoritarian plot is closer than you think,

History shows that most democratic nations don’t realize how serious their fascism problem is until it overtakes them altogether. We saw it in the 1930s in Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan; today it’s happened in Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, The Philippines and Brazil, and is well underway in Poland, India and multiple smaller countries.

… Fascism isn’t just about the merger of oligarch and state interests; it also requires a repudiation of the rule of law and the institutions of democracy itself.

… We’ve seen this movie before, and, tragically, history tells us most countries only recognize their fascism problem in the rear-view mirror after it’s consumed their democracy.

It is happening here,

… What took the German fascists a decade is happening in a matter of a few short years here in the United States because of the velocity of social media.

It’s being amplified by oligarch-owned media and the cowardice or opportunism of senior Republican officials, unwilling to honestly and openly confront the lies pushed by fascist conspiracy theorists or willing to embrace Trump’s fascism so they can win elections in 2022 and 2024.

Please read the entire piece.

Since Reagan the US has become less and less responsive to the public’s wants, needs and votes. Many, many people no longer have faith or trust in our government and institutions. The decades-long, billionaire-financed attack on government and democracy has taken its toll.

Is it too late? Has our system already fallen into a death-spiral of collapse? Perhaps.