General Discussion

We're not Weimar-era Germans. We are not born and bred to absolute, unquestioning obedience to civic authority. We're a rambunctious lot, the very embodiment of the messiness and seeming-chaos that comes with a vibrant democracy. Sooner or later, a demagogue, no matter how strong his hold on the public imagination might be, is going to go down through sheer, greedy overreach. Joseph McCarthy is probably the best example so far of this in American history.

Of course, right now in American history, the electorate has been taken over by poorly-educated bullies who are incapable of abstract thought. The word 'freedom', no matter how much they burble and blither it, is meaningless to them unless some concrete example of freedom is taken away from them. (Guns, for example; probably the only relevant example when talking about Trumpsters). Talk about civil liberty, civil rights, power to the people, checks and balances on civic authority, the rights and responsibilities of the citizen, etc, and they will tune out or just shrug. As long as they have their tractor pulls, their monster truck rallies, their Bud Lite, their NASCAR, and of course, their guns (which they will never, ever employ against real, actual, genuine tyranny), you can oppress them endlessly. They have no principles to uphold, and so make the perfect targets for power-crazed dictators.

We will see if cuts to their Medicaid will actually rouse them from their deeply uninformed slumber...