History does not repeat itself in the details or the personalities or the exact sequences.  But evil is still evil, humans are still humans, and Hitler represents to our minds a massive and almost-contemporary evil in a civilized and "Christian" nation.  So he is not to my mind a useless point of reference.

This (US) government has access to the greatest powers for warmaking and oppression the world has ever seen.  And from what we already know of them they are willing and likely to use them -- unless, as some of us hope, they are just monumentally incompetent.  But that also is a sobering thought.

"It is not pleasant to study the face of evil, but it seems good [to review] its common habits, intentions, and techniques. I've been browsing again in the speeches of Adolf Hitler*. There are several patterns of manipulation and verbal violence that quickly stand out to me."