Thanks for your equally respectful response. I, too, am trying to make sense of this phenomenon.

I try not to see people as simply good or bad. Most everyone I’ve met in the services seems to be motivated by a sense of service to their country. And that can be true while still holding very different views of what is good for one’s country.

Fears over immigrants, people of color, or those with different views on sexuality might genuinely be seen by some as a threat to the country, and hence worth fighting. Totalitarianism feeds and feeds on these kinds of fears. So it is very possible that a group of military organizers could believe they are doing what is good for their country while at the same time helping to accelerate a fall into totalitarianism.

Don’t you think?