How Dictatorships Are Born - by Roger Cohen

SO IMPORTANT! "Societies slide into dictatorship more often than they lurch, one barrier falling at a time. “Just a buffoon,” people say, “and vulgar.” And then it’s too late. Germans fell for the rubbish. The GOP fell for the garbage. Today, millions of Americans who plan to vote for Trump are apparently countenancing violence against their neighbors, people who might be different from them. It’s easy to inject the virus of hatred: just point a gun. That Trump traffics in violence is irrefutable. His movement wants action — deportations, arrests, assassination and torture have been mooted. The most worrying thing is not that Trump likes Vladimir Putin,  but that he apes Vladimir Putin. It’s the wildest political season in the history of the United States."