Europe's voters elect new parliament as nationalism mounts

[Hortensis]

2. 100 years ago fascism, archconservative by nature, started sweeping

across Europe and the U.S., and other parts of the planet, and we know how that turned out then.

What would have happened in all these nations if our stable democratic government in the U.S. had fallen to any of the populism-driven fascist, socialist and communist factions fighting to take it over doesn't bear thinking.

But it didn't, and we can't let it this time. Unfortunately, it became very, scary bad before it empowered big action to save our nation.

FDR speaking to congress, 1938:

Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.