History . . . Rinse and Repeat

Soviet Union circa 1980:

1. Citizens needed approved documents to travel or enter certain areas or places 2. History was re-written to comport with the mores and ideology of the elite 3. Citizens were encouraged to snitch against their neighbors who did not obey the rules 4. Those who did not parrot the appropriate ideology might be “re-educated” to accept it. 6. Those who protested at local boards had law enforcement investigate them. 7. Those who failed to comply with government mandates could lose their jobs or their homes. They could even be denied life saving medical treatment. 8. There were shortages of goods that were otherwise abundant in the West leaving shelves empty. 9. Those who spoke out were silenced. 10. Party elites ignored the very rules they expected the proletariat to follow.

Forty -one years later in the United States . . . history only repeats itself.