America was on the ropes--
1. Communist, Socialist, Nazi, and KKK mayors, council members, legislators.
2. Father Coughlin and Bundists parading in the streets.
3. The Tulsa Race Riots (okay, 1921)
4. The Bonus Army March on the Capital --- and MacArthur's attack on the Bonus Army -- 1932.
5. As the word slipped into chaos and war -- every other democracy went fascist or socialist - even the UK.
6. The US was the only western democracy that survived.
And, it wasn't Divine Providence
It was FDR and the New Deal