How Hitler went from fringe politician to dictator -- it's a mistake to think it can't happen here.

[CousinIT]

NOTE: From October 2016

https://www.businessinsider.com/hitler-trump-comparisons-2016-10

. . .

Hitler himself went from fringe politician to chancellor of Germany in the space of a few years. And he went from Chancellor to dictator in a matter of months.

. . .Trump already has more popular support than Hitler had before he eliminated Germany's democracy. Trump's party has more control of the government than the Nazis did. And President Trump would be the commander in chief of a military whose weaponry and power Hitler and the Nazis could only have dreamed of.

So it seems worth briefly reviewing this period of history and thinking about how it might be relevant to today.

From fringe politician to chancellor

For most of the 1920s, Hitler was a fringe-party rabble-rouser. In 1923, as the leader of the tiny Nazi party, he incited a violent attempt to overthrow the government and got himself thrown in prison for treason (a short stay that he later used to his advantage).

Hitler was a talented and mesmerizing speaker, and his speeches appealed to primal emotion and resentment rather than logic. His basic message was simple (and familiar):

Thanks to the incompetence and weakness of its leaders, the once-great nation of Germany had been reduced to a humiliating shadow of its former self.

Hitler and the Nazis, Hitler promised, would make Germany great again . . .

[patricia92243]

1. We all know it could happen here. That is why we are scared

to death of Dumpy Trumpy.

[Aristus]

2. Hitler garnered most of his initial broad support speaking on the radio.

Still a huge resource for right-wing rabble-rousers.

I used to wonder how people who saw him speak in person could take him seriously with that comic-opera uniform, the floppy, sweaty hair, the Charlie Chaplin moustache, and the seizure-like gestures. Who wouldn't fall over laughing at all that?

Then Trump came along with his odious spray-tan job, that tangled nest of hair, his baggy, poorly-tailored suits, and his vacuous, fourth-grade stage-play speaking style, and his Trumpanzees went ape (pun intended) over him.

[ibegurpard]

3. There is no one here who doesn't believe this is possible

Or that we aren't well on our way to it happening.
You need to take it up with the people in your life who aren't paying attention.