General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are we close to losing our democracy? [View all]Torchlight
(3,293 posts)Nazi youth training camps up and down the eastern seaboard and the southeast, a consistently growing membership into the tens of thousands (excessive when seen relative to US population at the time), and effective exploitation of the depression and dust bowl left large swaths of the US population open to just about anything other than than the status quo, and almost upending the fifth party system.
In his book, The Worst Hard Time, Tim Egon wrote that the only two adequate checks against the further advancement of the Bund party was the radio broadcast media (which he argues were then still very civic-minded), and the attack on Pearl harbor bringing Washington into the war.
Beyond that, I believe the cyclical swings will soon bring an end to sixth party system, and the Teabag Party, Trump and all associated with it will be viewed by our kids (or grand kids depending on age) much the same way we see McCarthy, Roy Cohn and Nixon today.
We may be close, but I think the US was even closer in the late 1930s.