https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/10/opinions/iran-social-rights-disappear-rapidly-nemat/index.html

This young woman’s story reminded me of my cousin Rudy’s experiences as a young man in Cuba after the Castro takeover. As he puts it, “You wake up one morning and everything has changed, and then its too late to do anything about it. It doesn’t matter what they tell you, or even which side you were on on. One day you suddenly realize you’re fucked.”

Rudy tells me he feels it coming, here. Its on the way. Whether or not it will actually succeed he cannot know, he understands there are counter-forces at work, just as there were in Cuba, and in Iran. But he knows they will try and he is scared. He has seen it all before. Americans have never seen this and they don’t know what to look for. Or they see it and just don’t care.

Read what she has to say. It sounds awfully familiar to me. I’ve heard this story before. Change a few proper nouns and her experience is indistinguishable from Rudy’s. It has nothing to do with Socialism or Fascism, Atheism or Theocracy, Capitalism or Communism. The villains are all different, but the playbook is always the same.

Yes, it CAN happen here. And if it does, it may give us plenty of warning while its on the way, but when it finally comes it will happen overnight.