Ok, I’ll do the Godwin thing, but it really is called for…

Back in the late 1920s, a nutty German fringe group teeming over with separatists, racists, economic cranks and violent thugs was given a platform to address the nation by Hugenberg, the largest media proprietor. He gave the groups vast slabs of his papers and airtime because he knew that this movement could attract people to a conservative movement that was otherwise discredited by its failed military adventures and indifference to poverty. The combination would not have achieved much, however, if the ruling centre-left social-democrats had not sacrificed the pensions of the people in the name of austerity.

Oh yeah, they also labelled all their enemies “secret jews”. These guys are dangerous. But they won’t be stopped as long as the democrats fail to harness the anger that is out there. I think the only chance the democrats have is if they come after the Koch brothers and their teabagger pets with all guns blazing, and force the republicans to ally openly with the cretins or disavow them entirely. “Taking their concerns on board”, like Obama did re the mosque controversy, only encourages them, and drives the polity ever further right.