General Discussion

been part of our dominant culture for the last 250 years with the roots of these arguably going back to 1215 C.E. with Magna Carta.

Other countries that are or became authoritarian do not have this heritage. Germany had been a democracy for only 15 years before Hitler came to power. Russia has a Czar in Putin, (though they call him president) just as they have had for most of the last 500 years.

China has President Jinping, who for all practical purposes is an emperor, just has China has had for the last 2000 years.

Another factor not mentioned is the economy. Hitler was able to come to power because of a poor economy, and with the help of Hjalmar Schacht was able to dramatically improve it, consolidating his power. Trump, however, is making every effort to crash the economy, which when it occurs, will only increase resistance to him.

There may be other issues not mentioned, but those are the two big ones. Hope they'll be enough to save us.