I'm starting to think it's a natural consequence of so much fear-mongering of "socialism".

The industrialists in Germany helped put the Nazis in power, mostly because they seemed to be the strongest opposition to supposed threats from socialists and communists.

And let's face it, there's a lot of companies that are run like mini-dictatorships. It's not like the managers are even the owners of the companies most of the time. So many of them just enjoy the power in a non-democratic process in which they can have workers fired, but those same workers can't even vote them out of that position. Voting them out can happen in government, but it's very rare among the private tyrannies.

I think places like Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia recruited journalist and media personality to spread propaganda in a way that destroys our democracy. They play the long game. This has been a slow process but Americans have been slow to notice.

... want to foster internal strife in this country, and they want USA's long-time alliances severed. They want the USA to be isolated on the international stage, and Trump keeps trying to do it.

I think it's VERY short-sighted by people like Putin. This country could still wipe them off the face of the planet, and being isolated would probably make that outcome more likely, especially since the strategy seems to involve putting right-wing authoritarians in power. That's like purposely putting Hitler in power somewhere just to make that country suffer. (Not that they USA hasn't been involved in similarly short-sighted manipulations in the past.)

what can we do? Bill Barr and Mitch McConnell and trump have the entire thing locked up.