A huge part of why Trump blindsided so many, especially Americans, is that they wouldn't consider the US to be any of those things.
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Meanwhile France almost elected a Nazi, Poland is ripe for this stuff, Hungary is already there...
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... the Czech Republic just elected their own Trumpesque figure, Eastern Europe entire is flirting with it, Austria, Belgium, even Germany are one recession away from it...
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... the UK has no need for it (it's already fucked), Spain is already there, the rest of the Mediterranean to follow.
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By design, neoliberalism provides every precondition I listed except a failing economy (that's contingent on debt, creditors & growth)...
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... but considering it deregulates fiscal systems and impoverishes states, you're always one recession away from a crashed economy.
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Crashed economy coincides with elections, you're rolling the dice to see if you end up with autocracy or more of the same shit.
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If you end up with more of the same, it precipitates future autocracy as the same mistakes are repeated.
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This is a system rigged to blow. When it goes, it will be violent.
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People compare this time to the 1930s. I've done so myself. But historical parallels are much closer to the prelude to WW1.
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Things you have in common:
1) Unprecedented peace (born of entangled defensive pacts & economies)
2) Corrupt, stagnant empires full of secessionist elements
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3) A gilded age for the ruling class built off the exploitation and milking of all other classes.
4) Tension between established players and upstarts.
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5) Massive ideological flight from the dominant values of the time (little belief in the righteousness of the system at its base).
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And most importantly, a sort of persistent feeling, best described by Barbara S. Tuchman... let me just find that quote...
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(Sorry, *W* Tuchman)
seems I misplaced that quote. It was a rather poignant description of the feeling that what's going on can't last.