Do you think that totalitarianism ended on May 8, 1945 or when the Soviet Union bit the dust in 1991? If you're a tea bagger you might think that totalitarianism returned when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. Think about this. Totalitarianism never went away not in 1945 or 1991. Today it's alive and well in a nation called the United States of America and is slowly and inexorably becoming our form of government. Our elections are becoming just a show.
Totalitarianism in fascist Germany and communist Russia was a fine and dandy undertaking consisting of slave labor and concentration camps. They didn't even invent the concentration camp. It was invented by the British in the Boer War. Neither did the fascist and communists invent the secret police. They didn't even invent the cult of the leader. Advances in technology of mass communications coupled with uncompromising ideology enabled the leader, members of the party, and followers to energize the mob into a fire breathing frenzy. Because of political and/or economic instability the leader had an easy time mobilizing the mob. It was necessary to place the blame for the instability on some social or economic group. In post World War 1 Germany the Nazis blamed the world Jewish banker conspiracy. In post World War 1 Russia the Bolsheviks blamed the bourgeoisie. So the question now is what political and/or economic instability in the US gave rise to the totalitarian tendencies we see today and who do we blame for that instability? From the 1960s all the way through the 1980s we had massive political and economic instability. For the blame take your pick from feminists, hippies, commies, non-white minorities, middle east oil states, terrorists, and now today its immigrants.
From the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until September 11, 2001 we saw peace time expansion of the economy. The collapse of the dot com bubble in 2000 seemed to be nothing but a speed bump. History shows us however that the economy during the 2nd Bush presidency was nearly flatlined and only appeared expansive due to the housing and real estate bubble. The dot com bubble collapse was only an appetizer for the housing and real estate bubble collapse in 2007-08.
Neoconservatives used the attacks of September 11, 2001 to create a cult of leadership around the 2nd Bush presidency and allowed the neocons to push their imperialistic dreams under the guise of fighting terrorism. This facilitated the erosion of civil liberties within the US and preemptive war outside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the election of Barack Obama the leadership cult didn't disappear. It continued to worship the imperial system that had grown up around the presidency.
An examination of classical totalitarianism begins with the mob. According to Hannah Arendt in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, a mob is
primarily a group in which the residue of all classes are represented. This makes it so easy to mistake the mob for the people, which also comprises all strata of society. While the people in all great revolutions fight for true representation, the mob always will shout for the "strong man," the "great leader." For the mob hates society from which it is excluded, as well as Parliament where it is not represented.
Today in the 21st Century the mob sticks out like a sore thumb. It is the ultra conservative ideologically pure wing of the Republican Party, aka "Tea Party." This mob didn't magically appear with the election of Barack Obama. It has been around since Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. It reared its head when Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter for president in 1980. At that time it wasn't a recognizable strata of the Republican Party but more like jelly beans in a bowl of pudding. Today these ultra conservatives have coalesced into a recognizable strata. Goldwater and Reagan are long gone but continue to influence the extreme conservative movement in the 21st Century.
In classic totalitarianism the goal is world domination with the party leadership forming a parallel "state within a state" and controlling all aspects of the national economy. In the 21st Century this isn't the case. What we have today are ultra wealthy economic actors using institutionalized bribery in the form of campaign contributions and using the corporate power structure to form the "state within a state." These economic actors can then lead our political leaders around and keep them on a very short leash.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the triumphalism with which American society has been steeping in ever since then and the economic system of orthodox capitalism has in the 21st Century become our "leader" to worship. This worship of orthodox capitalism and triumphalism is an insidious mix. It has led us down the garden path to perpetual war and dreams of world domination.