Imagine the paranoia of a German Jew in 1934.
The mood is omninous but still attributable to silly paranoia.

Gradually it feels more real until overnight on Krystalnacht there is longer room for doubt for victims and perpetraors alike.

Year seven of the Bush administration felt similar to 1936 Germany;

caged pens for free speech, homeland security researching the books people checked out of my local library, warrantless wiretaps, secret break ins to homes, personal firebombs found in yard, sick and evil rumor campaigns, patriotic war cries ad absurdum. with us or against us, tip lines, focused hate campaigns on the radio 24/7, no travel bans, push for national IDs and birth certifide passports to visit Canada, jailing people without rule of law but by Presidential order, TORTURE...

Yeah it was getting hairy here. Then they took all the money supply away and gave it to the Uber rich.

Suddenly the super patriot saw himself as a target and victim of der leader and wised up at least to the point of suspicion. Then he lost his job, his house, his [ension, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and all the talk radio shock troops had a different ring to it. Mr uber patriot was mad but twisted into a neurotic pretzel.
At least his guns and Bible remained unchanged. But then a BLACK man is President? This was the fault of those socialist intellectuals for sure. Then a rumor that Obama would take away the ammunition led to an all time hoarding and mass sales of bullets the country has ever seen. Now the former Bush patriot had all the guns and ammunition but not their kids, they still went to war. Some did not return. All the Hope and all the change did not bring jobs back to Bush patriots again.

If the economic collapse did not occure until after the election, McCain and Palin would in fact be in office and corporate fascism would have devoured even more to the point of 50% unemployment, no auro companies left and no means to counter actual stark starvation in America. Believe me, the current Depression could have been much worse. The form of fascist corporate dictatorship during the Bush years would have evolved into something similar to 1938 Germany.

We are not out of the Bush woods yet. Today America has more factory prisons than Germany.

Thank God OWS has spread. If it had waited another year, the crack down by authority would possibly be similar to Syria.