I'm reading the Harry Potter series to my kids. Right now we are on Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet of Fire, which was published in 2000 by Scholastic, is where the story starts getting really dark.
Yesterday I read a passage that reminded me so much of the Bush years.
In this passage, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are visiting Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, who is in hiding. Sirius escaped from prison after being locked up because he was wrongly accused of betraying Harry's parents, who were killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the baddest baddie of all time, Voldemort.
Sirius is explaining to the three kids what happened during the years immediately prior to their birth, in which Voldemort was coming to power. Voldemort has followers, and they are being fought by those in the Ministry of Magic, including the Aurors (those who fight bad wizards) and Barty Crouch. Voldemort is trying to become all powerful and along the way some Muggles (the non-magic) end up dying.
"Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now [said Sirius]. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't... Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic ... confusion ... that's how it used to be.
"Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning - I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to [prison] without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of [torture] against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you - plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic..."
In the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling predicted the not too distant future. Barty Crouch is Dick Cheney.
Too bad he never read it to his grandchildren. I wonder whether he would recognize himself in it.