For the first 49 years of my life, I wondered how the Holocaust could have happened.

[PatSeg]

50. Same here

Also Americans as a rule tend to live in a bubble, where autocratic, oppressive governments happen to other people, in lands far, far away. Warfare happens "over there" and heavily bombed cities are in other countries. We can acknowledge the violence, pain, and loss, even donate money to help the many victims worldwide, but for the most part, people can't imagine all those horrible things happening here. We're better than that.

But of course, we are vulnerable as well. The same things that have brought down other democracies can bring down our's. The same right-wing, fascist elements we see in Eastern Europe exist here. The same kinds of people behind restrictive theocracies live in the United States.

Awhile back, I read Erik Larson's book, In the Garden of Beasts, about 1930's Germany and I could see how the Nazis gained power and I could also see it starting to happen here as well. We see the equivalent of the very violent Brownshirts carrying military style weapons, feeling entitled and encouraged by their leader.

Truly, it CAN happen here.