"No people ever recognize their dictator in advance..."

In 1927 American journalist Dorothy Thompson was appointed head of the Berlin Bureau in Germany for the New York Post. She witnessed the rise of the Nazi party. She didn't believe that the new German Chancellor was any threat/danger to the citizens of Germany at that time and carelessly called Hitler, "a man of startling insignificance." 

It wasn't until the mid-1930's that she realized how wrong she was to overlook Hitler's behavior and dangerous edicts that exposed his political agenda and thirst for absolute power. She began warning readers and wrote in 1935, "No people ever recognize their dictator in advance...he always represents himself as the instrument of the incorporated national will of the people." 

Applying the lesson to the United States, she later wrote, "When our dictator turns up, you can depend on it, that he will be one of the boys and he will stand for everything traditionally American."

Our dictator is here.