I believe it is possible that I have read more books on Germany in the 20th Century than any other person on earth. Currently I am reading a book by Columbia Professor Fritz Stern called "Five Germanys." With all that in mind, I'm going to attempt to explain the current mess America is in and how we got here.
Very simply, Hitler's success in Germany came because he was able to make the State and his political party (the Nazis) one and the same. Government officials, judges, local police, the military--you name it, all the roles the State usually carries out--were carried out instead by party functionaries--people whose loyalty was not to the State, but to their party. Opposition to party politics became tantamount to treason.
Much the same has happened in America in the last seven years. State and party have become essentially one. There are no checks, there are no balances. Laws are re-written that will perpetuate State/party power (needing ID to vote in Georgia, proportional representation in California, denial of voting rights in DC.) I am not passing judgment on these dicta, but bring them up only because implicit in them is a bias that will strengthen the State/party nexus.
So here it is in one simple equation: if State = Party, then Fascism.
Sorry this isn't about advertising. Even I find some things more pressing.
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