Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield

Host: The city was quiet under a gray winter sky, its streets slick with rain and memory. The flags along the avenue hung limp, heavy with damp air. Somewhere, a protest had ended hours ago — the last of its chants echoing faintly through the alleyways, dissolving into the hum of streetlights.

Inside a narrow pub, the fireplace crackled softly, its light spilling over walls lined with old newspapers, photographs, and maps yellowed with age. The kind of place that remembered history even when the world forgot.

At a corner table, Jack sat, his hands wrapped around a glass of whiskey, eyes fixed on a folded newspaper between them. Jeeny sat opposite, the flames reflecting in her dark eyes — eyes that held both sorrow and defiance.

The headline on the page read: “Freedom at the Crossroads.”
Beneath it, in bold print, the quote:

*“Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage