Rise of the Nazi's (TV show)

[LennG]

I am a pure history buff. I devour anything about most of our wars and history, especially WWII and Hitler. There really hasn't been any new series on this area in quite a while, except for the continued repeats on many other channels--until now.
This is advertised as a new look at how Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party came to power, on many of your local PBS stations.

So they just had episode one on and after watching it I am amazed at several things. Now PBS, as far as I know, is just presenting facts as do other contributors like Ken Burns. Anyway, after watching the opening episode I came away with a very disturbing insight into Hitler and his rise to ultimate power and how similar it is to the present-day USA.

First, just some facts, Germany was a Democracy until Hitler assumed full power. They had regular elections and was, in many ways, similar to many other democratic countries. When Hitler and the new Nazi party saw their chance to make some inroads into the German parliament he jumped at it. At first, there was little interest in this new party, but Hitler made up lies and he felt by continually telling the people these lies, they would start to believe them. What surprised me the most was Hitler's theme of his main slogan "Make Germany Great Again". Sound familiar? His next sound bite was about the economic recovery, and how by following this new party, the Nazis, Germany can make a huge new economic recovery and lead the world. again sound familiar. 
As the history of post-war Germany was, Germany was reduced to barely getting by. Their economic growth was minimal, their standing in the world was terrible, so Hitler seized on these points and hammered them home to Germans who wanted and needed to believe this. They were tired of Germany being a doormat and when Hitler promised to 'Make Germany Great Again' and promised full economic recovery, many wanted to believe this was possible by following him. Add to that the infinite amount of lies he fed the public and he started gaining more and more power. To the point where he had enough power to force the Germans to dismantle their parliament and make him chancellor and eventually dictator.
Add to the fact that he used many 'scare' tactics to get people in line. The Storm Troopers, for example, were followers of his who armed and were at his whim to 'get back' at people who were deemed as an enemy. (Again, sound familiar). If you are in any way a history buff I urge you to watch this series.

My point here and I am really not trying to make this political, but the similarities between Hitler and some of the things that have been going on in this country are more than remarkably similar. Take a democratic country and make the people very unhappy. Add a charismatic person who promises to make that country great again, promised a full economic recovery, tells more and more lies to the people who want to believe these things, even though they aren't true. Add to that a waiting force of thugs who can be used at one's beck and call and who knows where one can go from there?
I know this will get push back as political, maybe so, but after watching this first episode, I just couldn't get over the many similarities to our country now. Think something like this is so far fetched, so did the people of Germany until Hitler took the ball and ran with it, all the way to dictator. Not possible here, why not?