Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, wrote the most salient paper on the topic of Democide, that is by definition, genocide by government against its people. In his analysis, Stanton identified 8 key stages related to the process of genocide? Classification Symbolization Dehumanization Organization Polarization Preparation, Extermination and Denial.

Stanton defines genocide as "A process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is not linear.  Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages.  But all stages continue to operate throughout the process. In other words, the processes and stages overlap and this is precisely what we see in modern day America.

In this article, I will review the 8 stages and comment with modern day examples of how these stages are being enacted, today.