(December 23, 2015 at 1:19 pm)Gawdzilla Wrote: Ku Klux Klan was very strong in the '20s. People didn't "flock" to them, but they were a presence. Same with Father Coughlin's Catholic-Fascist crap.
And there were enough budding Communists and leftover anarcho-syndicalists from the 20s to poise a counterweight. Not to mention the other right-wing political movements which were around.
I think Crossless's explication is spot-on -- this is inherently different from the conditions which drove the rise of autocrats in 1920s and 1930s Europe. If I had to draw any comparison, I'd point to post-war France, with a polity split by ideologies which, while mostly not extreme, are still fervently held and stubbornly fought.
