I loved the movie Cabaret, one of my very favourite musicals. Who can forget the vivacious Sally Bowles merrily singing and dancing her songs in carefree ignorance of the fascist menace oozing into the Weimar Republic: “Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the cabaret.” The film brilliantly juxtaposes Berlin’s decadent 1930s night life with its decadent 1930s politics. And who can forget the Kit Kat Club’s emcee, played by the Oscar-winning Joel Grey, leering ominously as he proclaims that “in here, life is bee-YOOD-e-full!

Joel Grey was in the news recently, publishing an article in The New York Times; entitled, “I Starred in Cabaret. We Need to Heed Its Warning.” He cautions us that at a time when an authoritarian is preparing to take power in America, “History is giving us another chance to confront the forces that Cabaret warned us about. … Will we listen this time, or will we keep laughing until the music stops?”

Is Mr. Grey right about the forces? A reader of this blog thinks so. In response to a recent post of mine, she suggested that “Americans are so overwhelmed by change generally and inflation specifically that they have given up on democracy and want a strongman to save them.” Very much like the Germans in the 1930s.

That the U.S. is moving in a fascist direction is beyond question. If the word “fascist” didn’t exist we would have to invent it to describe Donald Trump. He has attempted to undermine the range of institutions that democracy depends on: the courts, the media, the police and military, even the electoral process itself. He has threatened to use the instruments of the state to punish his enemies and has unleashed thugs to inflict violence on those who challenge his will.

He pursues immigrants as hatefully and relentlessly as Hitler pursued Jews. They are “poisoning the blood of our country,” he says, in language echoing der Führer.

What about us Canadians? Is the global malaise at our door?

The pundits are convinced that our incumbent government, like so many incumbents these days, will fall to the right in the next election. If so, our head of government will be Pierre Poilievre.

He is no Trump but he does manifest some Trumpian behaviours. He insults everyone he disagrees with, demonizing opponents and intimidating journalists. He rules his caucus with an iron hand to the point of insisting they not fraternize with MPs of other parties. He has no use for the press and plans on defunding the CBC, the most reliable source of news we have. And of no small importance, he was part of the Harper government that infamously put scientists on a short leash.

And speaking of Harper, he has sought close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, of whom Trump has spoken highly. Orban has become a poster boy for the extreme right by turning his country into what he calls an “illiberal democracy” but what in fact is a conservative autocracy. We might wonder if Poilievre, like his mentor, is also attracted to what Orban is peddling.

With what is happening next door, and the potential of an echo up here, Joel Grey deserves a hearing. As the emcee of the Kit Kat Club himself might phrase it: What’s it going to be, old chum, a cabaret? Or something a lot less fun?