It's not unprecedented in history for a people to take a sudden sharp turn and abandon their values to become another kind of people entirely. Speaking strictly in terms of social dynamics and not intending to draw an ideological comparison, that happened in Germany in the 1930s, when citizens of a democratic republic threw it all away to follow a charismatic but deeply twisted self-created Messiah figure. We got a milder taste in the 1950s when Joe McCarthy promoted a deeply anti-American paranoia and lynch mob mentality. Fear drove Americans to approve of putting Japanese-Americans into concentration camps.

Fear is the solvent used by demagogues to dissolve the bonds of conscience and morality. Once fear renders a people plastic--putty in the hands of a demagogue--hatred is the most-easily provoked emotion, because hatred most often springs from fear. Direct that hatred at your political enemies, and dictatorship is within your grasp.

I really do have faith in the American people, in the long run. I have reason to hope that as we start to understand how we've been manipulated and misused by RightWing politicians, Americans will be repulsed and disgusted, and throw the bastards out, and return to our mainstream Liberal values. The Right's sown the seeds of its own defeat by winning power through deception and manipulation.

The Revolution didn't die, it's just been on hold for three decades.