America's choice

Fascism or democracy lite?

These are strange times. Very strange. Looking back at the history I have lived though, I should have seen this circus coming.

I immigrated to this country from Haiti in 1983. Back then, Reagan was the President. My parents loved him, so 12-year-old me thought he was a super duper President. 53-year-old me knows that it was Reagan who enabled the political conditions we face today. Reagan was the original MAGA. Drumpf stole that idea and corrupted it even further.

Reagan set the stage. How?

Without exception, nothing commanded President Reagan's attention more than Russia. There were seemingly no lengths he wouldn't go to in the name of making sure Russia failed at every damn thing they tried in the '80s. He spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money supporting any and every effort to fight communism (or anything that sort of resembled it) anywhere in the world it happened to rear its head. It was called the "Reagan Doctrine," and it explains not only our economy-wrecking obsession with…