Historians looking back on this shameful period will wonder how this was allowed. How can one maniacal man in the Oval Office, his fanatical assistant, and two suck-up Cabinet secretaries have been so cruel and oblivious to basic human rights? How can their Republican enablers in Congress have been willing to go along? How can the American public have been so quiet?

Mr. Reich knows very well the answer to these rhetorical questions.

The rich and powerful have been allowed to amass too much power themselves, often with the American public's endorsement. Since the 80's and probably in earlier periods too, wealth is practially worshipped by Americans. When the accumulation of money and wealth is held in higher regard above morals, intelligence, empathy, wisdom or ethics, monsters emerge.