Hi Charles,

First and foremost, I appreciate the time and thought you put into your reply.

Now, I'm going to respond with a quick question: Can you see the imposition of things like vaccine mandates, where the State is imposing its Will with the threat of Force onto the individual, as an expression of authoritarianism?

I'm deliberately NOT using the word fascism now in this comment.

I don't think we have a word for what's emerging. I'd point to the work of a fellow ex pat patriot named CJ Hopkins. He refers to it as GlobalCap. Clearly, though, it's a merge of State and Private into a form of Power. Mussolini may not have spoken of it in those terms so we I can concede that point for the sake of our discussion.

I'd also say the work of writer Thomas Frank and his 2016 book "Listen, Liberal" is an excellent summary of how the Democratic Party has evolved since the 1970s. I'm not speaking alone here. It's not something that can be dismissed with easy satire.

So: vaccine mandates? Authoritarian? What? Certainly felt VERY foreign to the form of liberalism I was raised in and still believe in.