Its not that the bad guys are all Hitler, it's that Hitler is the most representative and most notable of a long line of tyrants that arise for pretty much the same reasons and act in pretty much the same ways. You could just as easily substitute Lenin, Mussolini, Franco, or any of a dozen assorted early 20th century European dictators or any of a host of Latin American, Asian and Middle Eastern ones. And there are dozens of Hitler-type fascists who arose in their own countries but never caught on, their countrymen rejected them and they are remembered only by historians. Hitler is just the one that most perfectly exemplifies the type, and the most successful and influential one. And Nazism is only the most extreme of their philosophies. When you say his name, everyone gets the picture without needing a history lesson.

History does NOT repeat itself. People are different, countries are different, and the times are different. And there is also the element of blind chance; shit does, after all, happen, or fail to happen on schedule. But is it so out of line to suggest that similar circumstances will tend to affect people in similar ways, favor similar ideas and produce similar results?

The reason fascism and Hitler tend to pop up so often in political discourse (yes even before the internet)is that those historical circumstances periodically repeat themselves, and the response of the societies they occur in are recognizably similar.

As I see it, you start off with a relatively prosperous and stable nation with a substantial middle class. There may be problems, but people are generally optimistic and have confidence for the future. Historical circumstances, such as military reverses, economic difficulties, or civil and social strife (or some combination of them) attack this optimism. People, (especially the middle class) suddenly begin to lose confidence that their future, and that of their children is in trouble. Suddenly, things seem to be sliding down hill, and they start getting scared. They are afraid their economic future is in jeopardy, that their children have no future, that the nation is being humiliated and dictated to on the world stage, that their cultural values are under attack. You know how it works, "I lost my job at the factory and there are Russians in Afghanistan, it must be because abortions are legal now and the blacks are getting uppity."

In this stewpot of uncertainty, demagogues arise, charismatic leaders who promise to make things all right again, to return the nation to the good ole' traditional values, the way things used to be. They promise to hunt down the traitors and backstabbers who sold the good, patriotic, god-fearing people down the river. They are going to make things right again. Of course, maybe the good old days weren't really all that wonderful, but who remembers that? Most people aren't looking for reasons, they just want excuses.

So the Hitlers (and the Trumps and Cruz's) bubble up, like turds in a toilet, to exploit this unease, to set up scapegoats, to parcel out blame, to promise to make things like they used to be, to crush the Jews, Liberals, foreigners, smarty-pants media hacks and Kollege Perfessers they blame for the fact that their boss opened a plant in China to make basketball shoes cheaper with child labor. The Hitlers aren't looking for solutions, they want villains. And the people who follow them can't tell the difference. Hell, this just happened in Russia. What do you think explains Putin's popularity?

Rob, maybe we're crazy, maybe we don't know what we're talking about, maybe we have misinterpreted all the clues and all the history through the filters of our own biases. Hell, I'm willing to accept that may even be partially true. But don't think we''re making all this up because we don't want freedom and we hate America. Its just the way we see things, and what we see is scaring the shit out of us.