How to Lose a Democracy in 10 Easy Steps

You know the Nazis. The gold standard of what happens when a bunch of angry, underemployed nationalists decide democracy is just too darn inconvenient. Now, we like to believe that their reign of terror was some kind of historical fluke, a one-time-only nightmare caused by a bad economy, a megalomaniac with a funny mustache, and a country that decided book burnings were a fun social event. But here’s the thing about history—it has a nasty habit of hitting “Copy-Paste” when no one’s paying attention.

Back in the 1930s, people kept assuring themselves that Hitler would just go away. Oh, he’s too extreme. Oh, he’s just riling up the base. Oh, his brownshirts are just passionate about their country. Sound familiar? Meanwhile, the rest of the world—busy with its own problems and high on the fumes of appeasement—mostly shrugged as Germany sprinted toward totalitarianism. Turns out, it takes more than wishful thinking and a sternly worded letter to stop fascism. It took an actual world war. Millions dead. Cities reduced to rubble. An entire continent practically leveled before the rest of the world finally went, “Oh, wait, maybe this guy is a problem.”

And this wasn’t a one-off. Japan’s imperial regime spent years stomping across Asia like a deranged Godzilla before America finally noticed that, hey, maybe an empire hell-bent on racial superiority and brutal expansionism wasn’t great for business. Rwanda? The world sat on its hands while nearly a million people were butchered with garden tools. The Balkans? Ethnic cleansing on a mass scale, and the international community twiddled its thumbs until it was practically over. Time and again, the lesson is the same: unchecked extremism doesn’t fizzle out—it snowballs. And it always takes outside intervention to put the brakes on it.

Which brings us to MAGA.

Now, before the usual suspects start hyperventilating—no, I’m not saying Trump is Hitler (he lacks the discipline) or that his followers are all future war criminals (most of them couldn’t organize a bake sale). But let’s talk trajectory. We’ve got a political cult that worships a man who openly fantasizes about jailing his enemies, stripping away rights, and using the military against his own citizens. His followers eat up every word, not because they love democracy, but because they’re itching for vengeance. And let’s not forget the coup attempt—you know, that thing where they stormed the Capitol, smearing feces on the walls like deranged zoo animals.

January 6 failed, but failures in fascist movements are just practice rounds. The smart ones don’t give up; they get better at hiding their intentions. The next guy won’t be some bumbling reality TV star who can’t string together a coherent sentence. He’ll be younger, smoother, more competent. And by the time he takes power, all the so-called “good people” will be looking around going, “Gosh, how did this happen?” Well, Karen, it happened because you shrugged at the warning signs while you sipped your pumpkin spice latte.

The good news? Extremism only wins when the world lets it. Hitler wasn’t stopped by a stern talking-to. Imperial Japan didn’t surrender because someone sent a politely worded email. It took a massive, unified response to crush those ideologies into dust. If MAGA continues its slide into full-blown authoritarian lunacy, the rest of us will have to decide: do we wait around and hope it implodes, or do we step in before history demands another bloodbath?

Your move, America.