Book Club

There is a universal truth about authoritarians.  

They are incapable of succeeding independently. They do not take power; they are given it.  

Successful authoritarians always adopt a preexisting political party.  

And establishment parties are populated by political figures who may outwardly profess disdain for aspiring authoritarians yet will eventually bend to their will.  

In the beginning they will oppose him.

Then they accept him.

They share a belief that they can manage him.

They find themselves defending him. 

At the end they become his sycophants. 

If you are looking for an old, but good read get yourself a copy of Diary of a Man in Despair.

Written between 1936 and 1944 by a conservative German who struggles to do the right thing all the while living in a depraved world.  It is prophetic.

He died at Dachau in 1945.