A citizenry that feels victimized.

The promise, for them, of vindication and retribution.

Propaganda that effectively generates alternative reality.

The promise of quick solutions to the nation’s problems.

An obedient and cowed legislature.

A legislature, thanks to minority dominance, that has proved unable to pass meaningful legislation.

Hypermasculine appeal to young men.

Executive power magnified by placing sycophants in high office.

The threat—or the actuality—of purging the military command and replacing its leaders with loyalists.

The threat of prosecution of political opponents, including imprisonment of the same—Dachau’s major purpose.

Allusions to mythical greatness in the nation’s past.

Pseudobiological assertions about threats to national /racial purity.

The denial that a dictatorship could ever happen in a nation like Germany (Goethe, Bach) or the United States (Lincoln).

The subordination of women.