"So the death of democracy will not be from a bunch of lunatics running around trying to re-create the middle-ages it will be from self-serving politicians pandering to a population who have forgotten how to think for themselves and actually question what their told once in a while"
This is how all democracies die. Rome could have easily held off the hordes, they even should have been able to --but the progressive rot of incompetent government, inherited mediocrity, and lead poisoning* degraded their ability to do what was necessary; what would have been the instinctive response during earlier periods of their history.
Europe is slated for a similar decline, with one major exception; the EU has no standing army, for now. They can threaten and bluster all they want with economic sanctions, but when faced with a real threat, these tools will falter and member states will look to their own. No one wants to sanction a neighbor who may they may need to fight alongside of in the near future, and no national government will promote foreign policies so unpopular at home as to threaten its existence. Unless there is military threat present.
Which is why I fully expect the EU to muster a trans-national military force in the near future, nominally to counter Russia/ISIS, but in reality to subjugate member states' governing bodies.
"four terms were the spur for Republicans to push the 22nd Amendment"
Well, that coupled with all the other crazy crap his administration pulled or tried to pull during the Depression & WWII. Another term would have had him banning the Republican Party outright, or suspending elections.
TCB
*I fully expect that the history books written by the Chinese or whomever, will record that excessive media intake by society directly led to structural hesitation and indecision dominating our strategies. Paralysis by analysis, at a civilizational level. Either that, or all the fluoride in the water made the leaders as dumb as the rest of us
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