[Steve_Seattle]

"There's a formula that works, and it has worked over and over in the course of human history. Combine narcissism, grandiosity, and a willingness to say or do anything to promote oneself and ones ideology and you have the ingredients for a dictator."

Another trait is to foster loyalty and dependency by having a sizeable percentage of the population directly dependent upon the regime through handouts, government jobs, favoritism, cronyism, and one-party politics.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Entirely agree. I guess if we were to be writing a Constitution from scratch, right now, in addition to the wonderful things put in by the framers of our Constitution, it would be very important to formulate a list of all the ways that people can be manipulated, and put in safeguards directed at each one. I know this is almost impossible, but knowing what we know now, some things could have been better.