Once upon a time, there was a country that lost an imperial war. The people’s national pride was wounded so they elected a doddering war hero who had no statecraft skills. Soon the country experienced a dire financial crisis. The old man was flummoxed. He struggled mightily to maintain the confidence of the people but was on the verge of failure. An election was rapidly approaching and things didn’t look good.

In his heart of hearts, the old hero preferred one of his cronies as a running mate, but his supporters saw that more of the same was a recipe for electoral disaster. Looming on the horizon though was a young, charismatic figure who, while bombastic, simplistic, hateful and ignorant, controlled a following of zealots and damn, if he couldn’t rile up the base with his blame-laying and simplistic solutions to complex problems.

The war hero was uncomfortable even associating with this crude fellow but his inner circle assured the dodderer that they could control this young upstart. Just then though they needed some new blood to invigorate their worn out and bankrupt followers. They urged an accommodation and they got it. The geezer was reelected. Within months Paul von Hindenburg was dead and Hitler came to power.