You are a thoughtful and observant man, Mr Flax. The will to power is the curse of our modern age. Mass murder and eliminationism have continued somewhere, everywhere unabated for the last 150 years or so. We here in America are not immune from any of this.
Egalitarianism, collectivism and all of the other ‘isms’ are merely the pretext for the acquisition and retention of absolute power. Whatevcer they choose to call it, it’s nothing more than the excuse for the imposition of a murderous totalitarinism.
From the demagogue's perspective, you are probably correct. But what the demagogue plays on are the basest human emotions. And in understanding this, you need to consider the compulsive pursuit of uniformity--the neurotic need to deny all the important qualities that make each of us unique. (For example, see Compulsion For Uniformity; or my new feature, today: Egalitarian Collectivism Sabotages Human Potential.)
It is that neurotic compulsion that provides Lenin's "Useful Idiots" & Keynes "Fools."
William Flax
I just finished reading: “Captains and the Kings”, by Taylor Caldwell.
Highly recommended reading. A fact-based fiction written around 1970 with a story beginning at the time of the civil war, it lays out these globalist games pretty well.