Democracy in Crisis

I am neither an intellectual nor a scholar. I have half-jokingly stated on several occasions that all I know about history, I've learned from Hollywood movies. But what I see on television, in the movies and on the internet and in newspapers, in many ways reminds me of the terrible teachings and actions perpetrated on the world by the Axis powers and by Stalinist Russia, during the 1930s and 1940s. For at least the past 20 years I have seen America's leaders (of both political parties) marching in the footprints of Hitler and Mussolini, and like the German and Italian citizens of the 1930s, Americans don't seem to mind. The extremely conservative wing of the GOP has skillfully converted xenophobia (fear of foreign religions and inferior races) into one of the basic values of secular America. Business journals blare warnings of the imminent collapse of our financial world and economic system while quoting CEOs, who are making $millions per month, assuring us that everything is well with the world economy, that echo the statements that preceded "The Great Depression" in the 1930s. I don't wish to leave unnoticed by today's generations the similarities between yesterday's "robber barons" and their justifications for their actions, and the recent actions and statements of today's government officials and business leaders.