Nepal, Feb. 22 -- English author Michael Rosen's 2014 poem is pertinent to our times. It is worth quoting: "Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you were, clear out the venal and the corrupt. remove anything you feel is unlike you. It doesn't walk in saying, 'Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.' "

The United States vice president, JD Vance (he of the "childless cat ladies" fame, a remark that drew an instant rebuke from Jennifer Anniston), delivered a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference, eviscerating the Europeans for not listening to their...