The table is set for a catastrophic empowerment of the right

[Papa Boule]

These guys are right.

The table is set for a catastrophic empowerment of the right. The pieces are in place:

-- The recent Supreme Court ruling giving corporations unlimited control over the democratic process.

-- A public willing to believe that whichever side wins is the right one.

-- A dithering, enabling, sycophantic, controlled media.

-- A national political drift to the right, while at the same time the core right has ideologically purified itself (driven away its moderates and "RINOs"), and has become insulated from facts and truth (and even the country itself) by having its own ideology-conforming news, information, and education sources.

-- A political left more afraid of being unpopular and of losing elections than of sacrificing all of its core principles.

-- The cultural "extremizing" of the moderate left, and the marginalizing and ridiculing of the left's rational voices.

-- The fanning of the flames of right wing fear and frenzy by talk radio ideologues and a national cable news network positioned to serve as an official ministry of propaganda (when that time soon comes).

-- A lingering culture of trauma-based child-rearing producing a core group of submissive authoritarian followers -- a standing army of foot soldiers.

-- The passing of the World War 2 generation, along with its first-hand awareness of the dangers of unchecked right-wing extremism.

-- An American lifestyle and infrastructure dependent on oil. Any interruption in its availability or uncontrolled rise in price, and, well....

-- An unchecked granting of power to the government to spy on, imprison, and even torture or kill anyone it pleases without regard to due process, along with an unprecedented concentration of power in the Executive Branch.

-- A looming American economic collapse, which will surely be followed by populist fury and demagoguery. Certain ethnic/minority/social groups are going to be exploited as targets for blame and hatred, to rally a movement.

Weimar Republic redux.

Are we ready?