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Tomorrow, I kick off a 10 city paperback tour for #FascismAWarning. Follow me here for updates as I talk about threats to democracy around the world, including here in America. 
When the book was first published last year, I hoped that the fears expressed in its pages would quickly prove exaggerated. Alas, that has not been the case.
Since #FascismAWarning first appeared, heads of government with an autocratic bent have won reelection in Russia, Hungary, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Cambodia.
In Brazil, voters fed up with corruption, crime, and recession turned to an openly misogynistic right-wing candidate who promises quick solutions based, in part, on a full-scale retreat from environmental stewardship.
In Europe and elsewhere, extreme nationalist movements continue to scale the ramparts – shifting the terms of debate, moving into legislatures, and grabbing for themselves a thicker slice of power.
And whereas in the past America always stood on the side of democratic institutions and values, the Trump administration has been fully engaged in kicking America’s allies, the independent press, federal prosecutors, immigrant families, and the notion that facts matter.
We are all familiar with the mantra: “see something, say something.” In #FascismAWarning, I propose an added exhortation – do something. And the first thing we must do is push back harder against the debilitating disease of cynicism.
That’s because fascist attitudes take hold when there are no social anchors and when the perception grows that everybody lies, steals and cares only about him- or herself. That is when the yearning is felt for a strong hand to protect against the evil “other.”
Flawed though our institutions may be, we need to remember that they are the best that four thousand years of civilization have produced and cannot be cast aside without opening the door to something far worse. We can never take our democracy for granted.
So the right response to intolerance is not more intolerance or self-righteousness; it is to bring together people across the political spectrum who want to make democracy more effective. That is what I argue for in #FascismAWarning.
