A centrist establishment that’s lost much of its legitimacy and makes things worse by refusing to reflect on its mistakes; demagogues and charlatans eager to exploit a mixture of justified anger and flagrant bigotry; bankers and businessmen willing to throw in their lot with thugs for the promise of further enrichment; religious leaders happy to sell their souls to a devil who promises them protection from cultural trends he exemplifies; throngs of citizens seeking relief from emotional and physical pain in the oblivion of drug addiction; a failure to reckon honestly with the human consequences of monumental foreign policy fiascos; external powers meddling in and manipulating the outcome of democratic decisions in order to advance their own interests — the parallels are numerous and chilling.