The problem is, the politically daft don’t comprehend the risk that comes when fascists get elected, and when their life is in precarity (say, one paycheck or one bad illness away from homelessness) then some strong, confident Mussolini-wanabe starts looking attractive, especially when what he promises is too good to be true.

During the Great Depression, different factions were seriously considering going full fash or trying out communism. (The growing pains of the Soviet Union didn’t seem worse than living in cardboard boxes here in the States.) FDR’s New Deal was a stopgap measure so that the industrialists could get their act together. Well, they resented having to consider the public then, and they still do now.

And as Iran has shown us recently, violence is unthinkable for the most of us, until the hour it’s inevitable.