Reply #8: I know Germany provides an excellent example of the phenomenon.

[crim son]

Whatever enabled those good, industrious, thoughtful and creative people to succumb to the promises made by their government at the time, we are just as suceptible and indeed more so. I imagine if the German citizenry was polled in 1944, anonymously, with no fear of reprisal for responses made, the approval rating for Hitler and his grand plan would have been damned low. But Germans before WWII were starving. Their international prestige had been grossly damaged and they were looking for redemption. Hitler promised them this redemption.

What has the fucking shrub offered us? Low gas prices? The promise that Christianity will remain the controlling religion of the nation? I have no idea because I've never bought into his bullshit: not from day one. But people always have believed the crap spewed by their government and I imagine they always will. The ability to think independently is, sadly, a rare gift.