Reply #4: Opportunity? The availability of victims for the monster to victimize?

[kenny blankenship]

A certain lack of restraint that comes to the fore when one side kicks the table over and throws the rule book into the fire?
Give them power and turn your back for a second, and...you see what happens.

And why is it a surprise that the party of incipient Fascism should become the no-kidding-around Fascist Party when they've finally seized power? They're only doing ALL THE STUFF THEY TALKED ABOUT FOR YEARS-DECADES. They put their usual rhetoric into action and swept aside their opposition by denying the right of a minority opinion to act as any kind check or moderating influence on their behavior--and the result is a slaughterhouse abroad and a bonfire of constitutional rights and legitimate gov't at home. Quel fucking surprise.
It's really no surprise that their "kinder and gentler" exponents would become vicious, too, when the main body of their goosestepping mob marches into the public square and declares a New Order.