How dictators rise

Question: How does a dimwit elevate to a position of supreme power?

Read the following: “Relying on intuition more than on reason, he was able to sway and manipulate huge crowds. Along with his fits of demonic temper and his bursts of hysteria, he had remarkable political instincts, especially in detecting and exploiting the fears and weaknesses of his adversaries. How much of ... charisma was genius, how much madness? The question will be argued for generations and perhaps centuries to come, not only by historians but by psychopathologists.”

Does this sound familiar, President Donald Trump? This quote is a description of Adolf Hitler from a book entitled “Illustrated History of World War II by Reader’s Digest 1969.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2017 at 7:01 PM with the headline "How dictators rise."