We have almost reached the point where the country can be referred to as "totalitarian" in accordance with the definition provided.Incrementally, it creeps forward: the "soft" tyranny. Curing, refining itself, and hardening, there will be a point of no return that is reached… a point where it has metastasized until it is both all encompassing and ubiquitous.

The problem is twofold: the incremental spread as mentioned, and the complacency and inability of people to recognize it for what it is. Someone posted a comment recently with a paragraph from Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" where the author regretfully lamented the complacency displayed by the Russians as the country turned Communist overnight. His regret was that the citizenry could have stopped it with hatchets and pitchforks at that point if they had acted and been of one accord. I have recommended it as a "must read," and strongly advise you to consider it as a "window" to what is happening in the U.S.