Understanding the Factors Behind the Rise of a US Dictator

Prologue

“I swear by God this holy oath, that I will render to Adolf Hitler, Führer of the German Reich and People, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, unconditional obedience, and that I am ready, as a brave soldier, to risk my life at any time for this oath.”

Chapter One 

Twenty-first century America is experiencing transformations similar to Germany in the early twentieth century.

Within the next ten years, America will elect its first autocrat. We are well on our way, with changes in voting laws, right-wing media gathering more citizens into the MAGA movement, and the coming loss of millions of jobs due to automation and AI—artificial intelligence. The army of the unemployed will vote for anyone who promises prosperity and a return to a secure life.

Anger is building in our country. It grows and spreads everywhere, every day. Whomever or whatever it’s directed at, it is mutating into a terrible force. People and institutions are belittled, labeled, identified as something dangerous to capitalism. Soon, hordes of people are screaming about something they can’t define or explain.

A century ago, propaganda took the form of leaflets, locally produced town papers, movies, posters, and blurry photographs. Current indoctrination campaigns batter the human mind day and night. “News” is produced rapid-fire and dispersed through radio, television, and more recently, a seemingly infinite array of social media. Whether the message is true matters little; hammering it home in continuous twenty-four-hour info-cycles is the goal of corporate memory molders.

Like a mortal sin, socialism has been lobbed across the political divide for nearly that long. The terms socialism and socialist are used to tag anything that threatens the free market economy, or, rather, the bank accounts of the super-rich. Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidency as a Republican in 1952. During his two terms, the tax rate for the highest earners reached 91 percent. Conservatives called Eisenhower a traitor, and certainly would have branded him a socialist in any modern-day election.

Automation took hold in the car business in the 1960s. Improvements mushroomed during the next decade, and by the 1980s many industries poured billions into automated assembly. Robots are now ubiquitous. They make cars, computer chips, drive vehicles, and even make pizza and burgers without human assistance. Self-checkout lanes exist everywhere, in vast numbers of retail outlets. Or, if you’d prefer, a few taps on a smartphone will generate delivery of any product you desire.

It is theorized that globally, eight hundred million jobs will be lost to automation by the year 2030. The low figure is four hundred million jobs, but the fact that economies like America’s will be hit hardest by this development is frightening. United States unemployment could jump to 20 percent in this scenario. What will people do? How will they eat, or survive? Who will care?

America will change dramatically in the next decade. The economic, social, and political transformations we’ve seen in our country to this point are nothing compared to what lies ahead. The startling reality is that present day America is on a parallel track to Germany a century ago.

Adolph Hitler was little more than a frustrated bully, an angry racist driven to succeed. Yet after a decade of rallying others to his cause, by any means necessary, including murder, he became the leader of the German nation.

America is deteriorating rapidly. Many of the same deficiencies that pushed Germany toward authoritarianism are now occurring in our country. 

Propaganda assaults the minds of the gullible. Fear turns good people against their brothers and sisters. Social problems are noticed for what they always were–dilemmas, and the worst is yet to come. 

In a few years, someone will emerge proclaiming the solution to America’s problems. Just as Hitler took absolute control of Germany after the 1932 election, the American Hitler will assume a comparable position after the 2032 election. 

Similar to climate change–which without intervention will eventually destroy human life on our planet–there are forces at work in the United States that will sweep a dictator into power. If we do not take action, drastic action–now–to diminish and eliminate the possibility, the horrors that occurred in Germany and Europe will be repeated in the Americas.

This book will attempt to identify similarities between Germany one hundred years ago and America in present day. We all saw what happened on January 6, 2021. Donald J. Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. By force. A police officer lost his life. Those responsible for organizing and implementing the attack on the Capitol Building are preparing for their next confrontation. They will be better armed, better trained, and ready to viciously assault the Democratic institutions of our country.

The rich want control of our political processes. The robber barons tried to take over in the 1930s by devising a scheme to overthrow the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A coup with a fascist government waited to take over. In America. Yes, this could happen again. Forces are falling into line that almost duplicate Germany’s path toward Nazism.

Propaganda is the subject of chapter one. Goebbels’ masterful use of the primitive art forms available to him created and nurtured a blind devotion to Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s astounding charisma combined with Goebbels’ propaganda machine convinced the bulk of the German people of their Führer’s “savior-like” status. They thirsted for someone, anyone, to resurrect the remains of their country from the devastation of the First World War.

After 1933, by the time Hitler began his reign of terror, he had surrounded himself with an iron wall of protection. No one dared question the motives and actions of the Nazi regime. The gestapo, ruthless and well-informed, made quick work of Hitler’s enemies. Their station in life made no difference. Rich, poor, politically connected or not, no one escaped torture and death if Hitler condemned them to such a fate. 

But it took careful manipulation to put Hitler in such a position of power. Goebbels transfixed the German people. Hitler’s powerful proclamations made them believers.

In modern-day America, “news” channels have taken Goebbels methods to the nth degree. The year 1987 saw the dissolution of the Fairness Doctrine. Introduced in 1949 as a United States communications policy formulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it required licensed radio and television broadcasters to present fair and balanced coverage of controversial issues of interest to their communities, including by granting equal airtime to opposing candidates for public office. Dissolving the Fairness Doctrine became the second gold rush for conservatives with enough money to build and buy media organizations.

Rupert Murdoch created Fox News. It seems he took the language of the doctrine and slapped it on the Fox banner. After his astounding success at “buying competitors and selling controversy,” other rich Republicans started their own ventures. Flashy commentators and bold set colors gathered millions to their cause. Rush Limbaugh and his army of radio personalities pulled tens of millions into the fold. For six years, progressive personalities with Air America presented an alternative point of view. Conservative media dwarfed their listener numbers; in just a few years, Air America filed for bankruptcy. The brand was sold for a little over four million dollars.

Progressive television flourished as well. CNN, MSNBC, and the old standard bearers ABC, CBS, and NBC put forth their version of the news. CNN ultimately copied much of Fox’s style, using bright colors in their sets and graphics. They also stepped up their delivery speed, matching Fox’s three to four second scene changes.

In the same way Goebbels bludgeoned the German people with a barrage of poster art, right-wing media saturates the minds of contemporary audiences with 24/7 media blasts. One hundred years apart, with incredibly different methods, the outcome is the same. Pound your message into the minds of anyone who will believe it. Millions can be led down any path the propagandist wishes, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

Chapter three introduces a comparison of enforcers for both regimes. Hitler had his bully boys, young–frustrated, unemployed men, and defeated soldiers returning from World War One. Germany’s political future lay within the warring ideological factions. The country was there for the taking. Hitler used his storm troopers to rout competing political parties, raid their meetings, and eventually murder many of the leaders. The Freikorps, ex-soldiers formed into autonomous groups, ran wild in Munich and Berlin. Upon the dissolution of Korps, many fell into the ranks of the storm troopers. Hitler used these forces to eliminate opposing parties and clear the way for his rise to power. Even more deadly were the SS and gestapo, divisions of enforcers with no compunction when it came to torture and murder.

Although these instruments dissolved after World War Two, the message remained. Hitler’s dream of Aryan perfection lasts to this day. His hatred of the Jewish people resonates with neo-Nazi groups in many countries around the world. Modern-day organizers of hate groups target a host of different people: Black Americans, Hispanics, other persons of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and Jewish populations the world over. Anyone their masters identify as the enemy is vilified, bullied, and sometimes murdered in cold blood.

Present day America has produced many different hate groups, most of whom would flock to the American Hitler’s banner. They live by the message of hate and blame those they are instructed to attack by right-wing media. 

“Making you afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it.” Michael Douglas spoke that line at the end of the excellent movie, The American President. That is the strategy of Fox News and the rest of their cohort. Rupert Murdoch imprinted his methodology, “Buy competitors, sell controversy.” As we saw on January 6, 2021, controversy sometimes kills.

Today, instead of the Freikorps and storm troopers, we have the Proud Boys, the Ku Klux Klan, Skinheads, and the White Aryan Resistance. The Red Shirts terrorized enemies in the late nineteenth century. Many in their ranks came from the Ku Klux Klan after federal forces scattered them in 1871. The Klan reorganized some years later, becoming a force for white supremacy in America. Skinheads and the White Aryan Resistance branched out from the Klan after disagreements between the principals. 

Over the years, they’ve become stronger and weaker at times; they’re most dangerous when splinter groups are formed. The newest supremacists, although they claim not to be, are the Proud Boys. Proud Boys are similar to storm troopers in the respect that they always look for a fight. Just as Hitler’s bully boys raided opposition party meetings with violence their first choice, Proud Boys come to peaceful protests to break up the opposition’s ranks.

All of these groups are filled with young men who believe their lot in life is the fault of someone else. Whichever group is flashed around social and right-wing media, those people will be attacked verbally and at times physically. Never mind the fact that the very people who own Fox, OANN, and Newsmax are intimately connected with the corporate world. Large companies that export millions of jobs out of the United States. The same companies that displace tens of thousands of American workers with the marvel of automation. It’s a stunning reality that the media message can dupe so many in our country, especially with the facts so close at hand. Hate groups will continue to grow in America.

The future will bring unemployment comparable to the Great Depression. All of the hungry, homeless, and desperate will do anything to feed and care for their families. Hitler promised prosperity and a return to a Germany where people could hold their heads high. The American Hitler will do likewise. United States citizens will flock to his lofty promises. The armed forces will swell with grateful soldiers, ready to swear fealty, just as German soldiers did to their Führer. Young, angry, disillusioned men in Germany. Men and women cast into the same mindset in modern-day America.

Chapter four examines lobbyists and lobbying activities. While 1920s Germany didn’t possess the lobbying sophistication of modern-day America, they did use the revolving door as fluently as politicians, corporations, and the military in our country. And behind every move lay the elite, the “robber barons” of early twentieth century Germany. The enemy in their eyes were left-leaning politicians, Bolsheviks, and socialists. Any political body with policies that threatened their income and wealth were thwarted or eliminated.

The Association of German Industry, the Industrialists Union, and the War Committee of German Industry all courted politicians in the Reichstag. In some cases, they placed company executives in positions of power in German government. Krupp (now ThyssenKrupp) and Siemens, giants in business today, used their influence to sway policy to their benefit. They and other business interests hated Democracy and worked hard to defeat it. Nothing proved more disgusting than the thought of “common people” taking what they’d earned.

The Communist Party had many followers during the struggle for power in Germany. The Marxist credo of, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” was poison to the elites’ way of life. They would do anything to stop the Bolsheviks from taking control. Even to the point of backing Hitler and his National Socialist Party. A fascist regime under the thumb of a man put into power by big business was a far better option than any government run with redistribution of wealth as their primary platform. Another prominent movement of the time, the Social Democratic Party, was outlawed after Hitler took power.

American lobbying has become its own enterprise. K Street, the main drag of lobbyist firms in Washington, serves clients around the globe. Of course they represent American companies, but nearly every country in the world wants access to the United States Congress. In 2021, President Biden’s first budget nearly touched seven trillion dollars. That’s a pile of money to be divvied up, and the gatekeepers are the House and Senate. Corporate representatives might be able to schmooze with politicians directly. A better route is through the carefully staffed offices on K Street.

If Germany one hundred years ago developed the revolving-door policy between government and business, America perfected it in the twentieth century. High-ranking military officers with unfettered paths to Defense Department officials and friends in Congress are scooped up by lobbying firms the moment they retire. Defense company executives like Dick Cheney move fluidly from government posts to the corporate world and back again. Cheney resigned from his CEO position at Halliburton mere months before becoming George W. Bush’s vice president. Of course, Dick Cheney never served a day in uniform. If he had, he might have scored a trifecta in the revolving door races.

Politicians on powerful committees in Washington find themselves courted during their careers by large corporations bidding on government contracts. Defense companies will bid high for the services of a committee chairman, especially in appropriations for military contracts. A politician might not know the first thing about the company. It’s the connections the corporate executives seek. A committee chair may have groomed his or her replacement for years, and favors are owed.

The connections between government, military, and corporate America are nearly unbreakable. Just another example of country club mentality. As easily as changing into a new suit, men and women enter and exit these different spheres. The rewards are many and lucrative.

Armies of lawyers in offices around the world play agent to the companies that pay them. Some of the largest firms employ hundreds of attorneys. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, the most prolific lobbying firm in Washington, fields no less than nine hundred attorneys. Whether the deals are closed on the golf course, over lunch, or via text message, the well-connected introduce the players. The lawyers take over from there.

Lobbyists save politicians from having to do their own work. Whatever the issue at hand, whether a bill, rider, or financial disbursement, lobbyists put together position papers for their chosen member of Congress. Instead of reading a one-thousand-page document, members of the House and Senate relax with a concise description of the matter at hand. Of course, the brief contains bias, with the explanation leaning toward the client’s wishes.

It really doesn’t matter which way a politician feels about a certain issue. There is so much money flying through K Street, lobbyists can represent company positions on either side of the aisle. It’s a rigged system, set up so beautifully it’s almost like its own country. The politicians run the show, the military provides protection and access to an entire slate of DOD ordnance, and the corporations fund the whole thing. The machinery is entrenched so deeply, the American people will never vote it out of office. And make no mistake, when a politician gets elected, lobbyists and CEOs share the office.

Let’s say a governor’s chief of staff retires before the second term. She leaves office knowing everything about her former boss. Within a short period of time, depending on the state, she can register as a lobbyist and begin a lucrative career matching companies and their desires with her former boss. State legislators across America leave office and soon after hang their shingle as a registered lobbyist. They can easily earn a salary ten times their government pay.

As long as global corporations control Washington politics, Democracy will wither under the shadow of free enterprise.

Chapter five examines what I choose to call the army of the unemployed. German soldiers returning from defeat in WWI had little to come home to. Similar to German citizens in the 1920s who couldn’t find work, members of the armed forces struggled to provide for themselves. Reparations from the Treaty of Versailles drained government coffers. German production fell into the hands of Poland and other hated enemies. Leadership of the country was in play. Different political parties vied for control of Germany’s future. Some soldiers formed bands of roving fighters, which coalesced into the Freikorps, the first organized unit fighting the communists.

The Great Depression crushed the dwindling spirit of Germany. 

Unemployment jumped to 25 percent. By 1931, nearly one-third of Germany’s workers had lost their jobs. In 1933, when Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor, one in three Germans suffered unemployment. The Reichsmark fell so drastically, those still earning a paycheck rushed immediately to the marketplace before the value of their money plummeted further. People who sold perishables did quite well during this period, as did anyone with a debt to pay. The original terms of the loan stood firm, allowing them to repay in record time.

Germans thirsted for leadership. Their hunger drove them into Hitler’s arms. While thrashing his political opponents, Hitler promised the people of Germany prosperity. Large infrastructure projects like the Autobahn put people back to work. Rearmament boosted armed forces numbers. With military service comes a steady paycheck, food, and shelter, and most important, a better outlook for the future. These events caused people to swarm to their Führer. Many of the unemployed signed up to become soldiers in the Nazi army. At its height in WWII, Hitler’s forces totaled over thirteen million men.

America survived the Great Recession of 2008. Nevertheless, millions of honest hardworking men and women lost their homes. Not only were they thrown out of their most significant investment asset, they also lost everything after being told they no longer had jobs. Wall Street, banks, and the real estate industry engineered the biggest money grab in decades, and main street paid the price. The recovery was slow and steady, but millions struggled to find work. A family member with a college education and thirty years in radio lost his job as quickly as those on Wall Street. He spent years looking for a comparable position and then shifted his strategy to taking any job he could find. Finally, after a painful, multiyear effort, he found employment with a grocery chain. He’s been there ever since. His story is a microcosm of many American citizens. Meanwhile, CEOs of major banks made out like bandits.

The great recession involved real estate. Predatory lenders suckered people into subprime loans with variable interest rates. When the rates changed and homeowners could no longer pay their mortgages, the balloon popped, and the United States almost dragged the world into a global recession.

People will do anything if they’re starving. If joining the military brings safety and security for our families, sign us up.

What will the trigger be next time? In 2021, student loan debt topped one point seven trillion dollars. Will the wizards of Wall Street find a way to package it into collateralized debt obligations and sell them to unsuspecting buyers? The banks certainly covered their bases by asking Congress to remove student loan debt from bankruptcy protection. If that bubble bursts, the American people will be left holding the bag again. Another wave of mass unemployment could follow.

Joblessness will rise drastically in America by 2030. Major business consulting firms have postulated that globally, four hundred to eight hundred million jobs will be lost to automation. The argument against that theory is, “They’ve been saying that for decades.” True, but fifty years ago automobile manufacturing had barely touched robotic assembly lines. The first spot welder on a robot arm hit Ford Motor Company in 1969. Computers, the internet, and artificial intelligence hadn’t even entered the picture yet.

Do a Google search on robotic manufacturing. In less than a second, you’ll be looking at thirty-six million results. On the first page of hits, you will find YouTube videos about the present and robots in manufacturing. Not the future, now. A handful of robot manufacturing companies will appear, as well as articles describing the best robotics companies, and the future of automated systems technology.

I’ve taught university level statistics for nearly ten years. In 2020 our college switched to online instruction. Staff and administration also worked remotely. As I prepped to teach stats online, I began to realize during the semester that the CSU could realistically fire every professor of any rank and turn the courses over to newly hired teachers in India or another outsourced country. Everything would already be in place. All the teachers would have to do is host Zoom sessions and guide students through class material. Of course, the outsourced teachers would be paid a fraction of what American professors in the CSU make. Capitalism at its finest.

How long will it be before courses at universities in America and around the world turn their classes over to robots? Seems ridiculous, right? Couldn’t happen for another few decades? Right now there are artificially intelligent office assistants mastering every task of a human secretary. The excellent series, Year Million, introduces a computer screen office assistant for a Silicon Valley executive. She is artificially intelligent, executes tasks efficiently and with greater speed than her human counterpart. Her AI abilities allow her to learn the executive’s routine, to the point of making calculated decisions regarding his schedule, his likes and dislikes, and which people and appointments rate the highest when he faces a difficult day. With a computer-generated image and voice, she speaks to clients, partners, and coworkers intelligently and gracefully. She never receives a paycheck, doesn’t need to eat or take breaks, and she works twenty-four hours a day.

This is only the beginning. In ten years, I see AI professors teaching college courses around the world. Physical university buildings and campuses will cease to exist. Massive server complexes located anywhere in the world will house artificially intelligent interfaces for college courses. After firing all professors, outsourced or not, the CSU will rake in millions after the initial investment. The robotic professors won’t gripe about low pay, they won’t be concerned with medical benefits, and they’ll never need a break.

In 2020, my doctor talked to me about an operation to remove a small part of my colon. He told me a robot would perform the surgery. A machine controlled by a doctor in another part of the country. I asked him if it resembled predator drone warfare. He chuckled and answered yes. A physician in an office, perhaps thousands of miles away, controlling a robot digging into my belly button. How long will it be before an artificially intelligent “surgeon” controls the entire operation. Automation isn’t just about building cars anymore. Robotics is spreading into white collar and professional occupations.

Computing power doubles every year. We haven’t seen anything yet. Millions will lose their jobs as AI penetrates more and more fields. Where will those individuals find work? Will they be retrained? As what? With computing power accelerating every year, someday we won’t be able to keep up.

If the United States fields about 17 percent of all jobs in the world, and roughly six hundred million jobs will be lost to automation, then our share will be a little over one hundred million jobs lost. One hundred million Americans out of work. Hungry. Desperate. Imagine the military machine our dictator could build with the horde of unemployed people. The American Hitler will send his message far and wide. Support me and I’ll restore our country’s greatness. New and better jobs for everyone. Hope restored.

Chapter six looks at the magic of charisma. Adolf Hitler’s charisma burst from his soul like a fireworks display. He could hold a stadium filled with tens of thousands in his hands just by the power of his magnetism. Everything came into play: his voice, gestures, body posture, and physical outbursts hypnotized people. With Joseph Goebbels carefully manipulating Germans into thinking Hitler was godsent, and the Führer providing the theatrics, they persuaded the populace to follow their new leader.

Hitler didn’t walk into the world a master of public speaking. On the contrary, he started off as an introvert. Socially clumsy in the army and thereafter, many saw him as a peculiar little man. After a stretch as a hopeful artist, Hitler left Austria and returned to Munich. There he tried to resurrect his painting career. Again, he failed, but the outbreak of WWI gave his life new purpose.

Upon finding himself a contender for public office, Hitler fine-tuned his acting skills. To prepare for his upcoming speeches, he had photographs taken in different poses so he could see how effective they were. He began speaking in the beer halls of Germany. The Freikorps and storm troopers protected him with violence and intimidation. Soon Hitler began entertaining larger audiences. He fed off their enthusiasm. His words and actions, practiced to the point of perfection, drew in even bigger crowds.

Charisma is a powerful force. Adolf Hitler’s charisma blossomed as the months passed. By the time of the 1932 elections, his National Socialist Party collected enough votes to influence German politics. So much so that Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.

In America, we can examine another captivating speaker–Joel Osteen. This is not to say Osteen is a murdering sociopath like Hitler. But he does possess a powerful, magnetic charisma, as Hitler did. The son of a Texas preacher, Osteen left college and took over the family church. He understood the power of television ministries and soon turned a marginal congregation into an international powerhouse. Ten million people in America follow his weekly televised sermons. Millions more around the world watch as well.

His followers multiplied like the loaves and fishes in the Bible story. The weekly tithe soon allowed “Pastor Joel” to buy the Houston Rockets former basketball stadium, spend seventy-five million dollars in renovations, and turn it into the biggest mega church in the country. Sixteen thousand parishioners can sit and stand in the stadium. Each week Osteen hosts more than thirty thousand believers.

Now that’s a lot of tithing.

Joel Osteen could probably keep parishioners enthralled by just flashing his gargantuan smile. That face is on the cover of each book in a string of self-help bestsellers. A beaming, happy minister telling his followers that God wants them to prosper just as he’s done. However, his books seem to be more about his ability as a personal coach than a minister leading his flock to the Almighty.

Like Hitler, Joel Osteen knows about the power of practiced presentation. Today’s mega-ministers, like Osteen, embrace the overwhelming influence of televised evangelism. Cameras are placed strategically around Osteen’s stage, or altar, depending on what you believe. Expensive suits support Pastor Joel’s smiling visage, topped by perfectly coifed hair. His expressions are skillfully prepared, just like Hitler’s. The fact that he looks like a middle-aged schoolboy certainly doesn’t hurt. After all, how could you disbelieve anyone with a face as cherubic as Osteen’s.

Adolf Hitler certainly didn’t draw his followers with a boyish smile. His face remained stern and strong whenever he spoke in public. In the 1920s, that’s what the German people needed, a capable, angry man ready to lead their country. Germans were fuming over the state of affairs. With everything that occurred after WWI, the political stability of the country disintegrating, citizens starving and hopeless, no wonder they rushed toward Hitler’s fanatic charisma.

Millions of Americans in the 2020s seek a similar answer. Unlike Germany in the twentieth century, however, their slate of complaints isn’t based on factual evidence. Rupert Murdoch and other wealthy men who want to expand their holdings make a fortune from pushing controversy. If it damages the country, so what? They’re no different than the long string of capitalists that decorate our history. This is America. Money rules, period.

A few potential American Hitlers are swirling in the wind. They’re ready to say anything conservatives want to hear to reach the White House. Perhaps they’ll try their chances in the 2024 election or maybe 2028. By 2032, however, the stage will be set for the American Hitler to capture the presidency and then the country.

My sister recently sent me an article about Tucker Carlson and his August 7, 2021, speech in Budapest, Hungary. According to CNN, Carlson spoke to a right leaning audience. The tag line for the evening’s oration, “If you care about Western civilization and democracy and families and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, you should know what is happening here right now.”

Bad enough that a Fox News personality is speaking in a foreign country. Worse that he accepts an invitation from an autocratic leader in a country where Democracy is something read about in history books. What struck me most profoundly was the picture accompanying the article. Carlson stands before an audience, a look of solemn caring on his face, with his outstretched hand summoning the people to his cause. It looked exactly like one of Adolf Hitler’s practiced poses, one of many he used to mesmerize the German people.

I’ve heard that Tucker Carlson might be a Republican candidate for president in the future. He used to be the biggest draw on Fox News. His fans believed everything he said. It makes perfect sense except for one thing. Carlson could put me to sleep in two minutes in any venue. He needs to hone his charisma if he wants to capture the middle. But never forget, the gullible really don’t listen with a critical ear. As long as key emotional points are hammered home, they’ll swallow anything the man says.

Chapter seven is titled, “Anarchy Feeds the Monster.” During the 1920s, Germany’s political and military groups fought openly in the streets, in beer halls, and during political speeches. Not only were German citizens destitute physically and spiritually, but they also had no idea what their future might be. By the time the Great Depression hit America and its ramifications spread to other dependent countries, chaos ruled in Germany. Unemployment skyrocketed; inflation put a stranglehold on budgets. Hitler’s momentum carried him to increasing popularity. People were starving for someone with a solution.

Modern-day America has fallen into the same tragic play. Anarchy reared its ugly head on January 6, 2021. The kettle had been boiling for decades. Since 2009, right-wing media has been throwing bigger and bigger logs onto the fire. When Trump got elected, all bets were off. The neocons threw the lid off and tipped the kettle over. With a racist in the White House, bigotry finally came out in the open.

The hatred poured out against Black Americans, people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community. Even worse, conservative politicians, following their paymasters’ desires, declared open war on liberal Democrats. There is no conservative party anymore. It’s been hijacked by a sect of religious zealots who use their pulpit to spread lies amid a constant call for donations. Right-wing media has hypnotized a huge swath of our population. Social media has exploded with “journalists,” and “televangelists.”

And we’re only in the beginning of the 2020s. A report in the August 9, 2021, issue of the New York Times states that no matter what humans do from this point forward, the earth will cook with higher temperatures. With the approval of one hundred ninety-five countries and information based on thousands of scientific studies, the report claims we are past a certain point already. If we fail to drastically change our fossil fuel consumption immediately, humankind could push global temperatures up another ten degrees Fahrenheit. The explosive weather changes we’ve seen thus far will accelerate as the earth warms. Even more perilous heat waves, droughts, sea-level rise, floods, hurricanes, and the resulting destruction of low-lying land masses are on the horizon. 

Will we modify our behavior? Not likely. There is some movement in the right direction with solar power and electric vehicles. On a mass scale, however, very little will change. We will continue to assault the atmosphere and pay the price.

These events, combined with a sharp increase in unemployed Americans in the late 2020s will bring anarchy. And anarchy will create and feed a monster in America. Just as Germany roiled in uncertainty in the years after WWI, America will descend into madness when the social fabric of society breaks down. Identity groups will scream even louder for their piece of the pie. 

Uneducated white workers, discovering that Making America Great Again includes losing their jobs, will swallow the lies of right-wing media and buy even more guns. The Democratic party will flail away like kelp in a current while the Republicans solidify their hold on politics and commerce. The last bastion of the progressive movement, academia, will spend its energies defending its woke ideology and policies instead of lending its formidable intelligence to serious problems. Law enforcement will burst from the lips of any politician who wishes to hold office. Guns and Bibles will rule the day once again as citizens from both sides of the aisle try to secure what little is left. 

Chapter Eight is titled, “To Coup or Not to Coup.” In the 1930s, robber barons like Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan engineered a coup to overthrow FDR’s presidency. Calling on a decorated Marine Corps general, Smedley Butler, they promised him an army of five hundred thousand men if he would lead them in an insurrection. His reward–a promotion from general to ruler of a fascist America. Alarmingly similar to the German elite who sponsored Hitler’s rise to power, the wealthy Americans wanted to crush any “socialist” form of government. Claiming Roosevelt himself a socialist, and his New Deal an assault on their wealth, they stood ready to flip America on its head.

Ninety years ago, American politics was the invention of the wheel compared to today’s sophisticated, well-oiled machine. January 6, 2021, was a shocking reminder that violent coups can still happen in America. 

Unorganized and without competent leadership, the rioters still pounded their way past a paltry phalanx of law enforcement and invaded the Capitol Building. They committed murder and held similar designs on many of our elected officials.

Without a doubt, it was a coup designed to put Donald Trump back in the White House, by any means necessary. But is a coup necessary in modern-day America? 

In the 1920s, Hitler’s strategists used as much of the democratic process as they could to destabilize the Weimar Republic. Business elites in Germany positioned themselves within the Reichstag for two reasons: to protect their wealth and control democratic bodies essential to their cause. High-level administrators of Germany’s leading industries, which already, by the force of their finances, controlled politicians in the Reichstag, used campaign financing along with production threats to effect change advantageous to them.

After WWII, international scholars produced papers stating that Hitler’s benevolent strategy to restructure the political system could happen anywhere, even in mid-nineteenth century democratic governments.

Right now, in 2020s America, right-wing politicians in state governments are using our democratic processes to undermine our election methods. They are using their political advantage to change voting laws. In some states, such as Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee, voter registration and voter identification laws have changed. Many more laws are under assault, such as, online voter registration, same-day voter registration, and automatic voter registration. Nationally, over thirty laws in nearly twenty states have made it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots. 

These laws are specifically directed towards the poor and people of color, those who already have difficulty voting. For the most part, these American citizens are solid Democrats, or as some like to call them, socialist enemies of free enterprise.

The 2020 election produced a massive voter turnout. We can thank Trump for that. His destructive presidency urged millions of people to deny him a second term. Conservatives became concerned, so much so that the only way they felt they could stop the progressive wave was to make certain the wrong people wouldn’t be able to vote again. A new law in Georgia seeks to prohibit the distribution of food and water to citizens waiting in lengthy lines to vote. Heated discussion occurs between conservatives and liberals about the law’s definition, but however you look at it, providing these biological essentials to voters can be legally challenged.

The federal government, where currently the Democrats control two branches, seems powerless to stop states from changing the game. The second decade of the twentieth century will certainly show if liberals have any teeth. Midterm elections almost always repeal gains made by either party. The midterm elections of 2022 might have proved disastrous to the party of the people.

Since 1980, when Ronald Reagan won his first term, government policy has fallen prey to monied interests. Reagan pushed through a tax cut for the rich. Donald Trump did the same during his time in office. But it was Bill Clinton who signed the law that ultimately caused the real estate meltdown of 2008. Laws favor those who can purchase them.

Corporate bankrolls far outweigh opposing movements’ ability to challenge them in election funding. Two men in America, David and Charles Koch (David Koch has since passed away), provided nearly a billion dollars to sway a single political cycle. They have financed numerous vehicles to manipulate opinion and votes. Their association of right-wing powerbrokers meets regularly to plan their next assault on democracy.

German elites sought to control the Reichstag a hundred years ago. American elites have assaulted our political system for decades. With the passage of Citizens United in 2010, which allows wealthy donors to contribute enormous amounts of cash to political contests, massive lobbying activities, and a right-wing media blitz that Hitler and Goebbels would applaud, the few who want to control everything are gathering influence in all levels of government. 

Like German elites and those vying for power in the chaos of 1920s Germany, those in power generate chaos in the 2020s, and make a fortune doing so. Similar to their German counterparts, their goal is to block any efforts by liberals, re: socialists and communists, to redistribute the wealth their families have accumulated. They want to keep what they have, and they also want more of what remains in America.

There’s no doubt that Adolf Hitler tortured and murdered his way into controlling Germany. He needed the elites to sponsor him, however, and before his Nazi Party took absolute control, the elite used the existing democratic constitution in the Weimar Republic to set the stage. 

As I write this in America, we just flipped the calendar into the year 2022. After the 2020 election, in which the Republicans got hammered, the wealthy conservative elite stepped up its efforts to grab and maintain control of American politics. The U.S. Supreme Court is stocked heavily with conservative justices. The legislative branch may soon be in Republican hands again. Perhaps in 2024, a Republican will regain the White House. And all the while, the wealthy elite manipulate the economy to their political advantage.

When the price of a barrel of oil increases, everything must follow. Gas is approaching five dollars a gallon. The utility companies have declared all-out war on their customers. Prices on everything from groceries, medicine, personal care items, monthly rent, and even the most inexpensive fast food and family restaurants have skyrocketed. Add to that the pandemic induced supply chain gridlock, which causes even more price increases, and everyday citizens are deeply concerned about whether or not they can pay their bills.

What kind of emotions do these events spur in people? Anger, frustration, fear, even panic. With the proper seasoning of media misrepresentation, the harsh emotions are directed toward sitting administrations.

The American embassy in Iran is attacked and occupied. Hostages are taken. Pictures and videos are shown all over America. President Carter attempts a daring rescue, which fails miserably. These and other domestic travails doom his chances for a second term, and voters toss him out of office. Ronald Reagan prevails, becomes president, and sells his version of supply side economics. Regulations are gutted, unions are attacked and weakened, and the military budget expands geometrically. The Iranian hostages are miraculously released the day Ronald Reagan is sworn into office in 1981.

Bill Clinton is elected president soon after the Fairness Doctrine is struck down. A 24/7 barrage of vile “news” is directed at Clinton and his wife Hillary. Clinton can’t control his philandering ways and tries to cover up a dalliance with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. He tries to smother the news cycle by bombing parts of Serbia. Newt Gingrich, the defender of family values, assails Clinton with the help of Fox News and right-wing radio. George W. Bush is installed as president by the Supreme Court in the year 2000. Terrorists attack major corporate and government buildings with passenger planes in 2001. The war on terror begins, and Bush invades Iraq and then Afghanistan. The “coalition of the willing” acts as the spearpoint for American and British oil conglomerates.

After Bush nearly triggers a global depression by not reigning in Wall Street, Barack Obama wins a historic election, defeating John McCain and the epitome of American intelligence, Sarah Palin. Right-wing media cranks up the rhetoric immediately, marshaling a ceaseless onslaught against Obama and his wife, Michelle.