It does feel like there is a certain Zeitgeist of awakening, of renewed possibility that the trance into which large sections of our intelligentsia fell perhaps 60 years ago may be weakening.
For my part, I simply want to point out that all Communist coups–as I point out from time to time, revolution has almost never been an appropriate word–consist in a very small cadre using deceit and violence to control a much larger mass of people who think they share a common cause. Fernandez uses the metaphor of the Matryoshka dolls, and that works for me.
You have cadres within cadres within cadres. Only the aspiring despot and a small circle know the full plan. They use a broad base of support to eliminate political enemies, then narrow the circle of enemies to include people who thought they were on board, but weren’t (as Fernandez notes).
There were genuine democrats marching with Lenin. Until Ho had them killed, there were genuine nationalists in Vietnam. Castro and Mao no doubt marched with people who truly thought good things were in store.
And so with the Democrats. It is getting harder and harder to reconcile allegiance to this cult with common decency, the law, and representative democracy.