To the editor:

In a letter to the editor I wrote in February of 2017, my intent was to draw attention to the election of Donald Trump and express my opinion that this is a dangerous man.

In the past eight years, where do we find ourselves?

Think about the following pertaining to the major activities of a would-be fascist, dictator, authoritarian, etc. Fascism is founded upon the following:

1. Targeting ideological enemies

2. Exploiting a crisis

3. Sowing division — us versus them

4. Patriarchal society — leader, CEO, etc.

5. Mythologizing the past

6. Masking corruption under the guise of anti-corruption

7. Dismantling the rule of law

8. Undermining public discourse by attacking education, language and expertise

9. Promoting propaganda by instilling fear and passion irrationally, use of slogans

10. Conspiracy theories delegitimizing mainstream media

11. Nationalism is at the core

12. Equality threatens men as sole providers

13. Replacing reasoned debate with fear and anger

14. Fascism aims its message at the populace outside of cities

15. Fascism is most effective under conditions of stark economic inequality (labor unions are one of the best antidotes)

Does any of the foregoing ring a bell? How quickly we forget the past, and the past I’m referring to is 1933-1945. In a country with approximately 300 million ELIGIBLE voters, our history reveals that we rarely surpass 55% of the population voting. What a shame. Roughly 100 million simply do not participate. I realize also that many of these non-participants may be sovereign groups, militias, hate groups, anti-government groups and those just fed up with government. What it comes down to is that we are governed, in the best of election turnouts, by half the population — and what is more disturbing — is we are governed by the 30-35% (Trump supporters).

So, here we are, preparing to endure another four years of chaos, hatred, lies, circus-like atmosphere and plain old avarice. It’s time to get involved and support the activism in the country.

Thomas Kilroy

Saranac Lake