I have long said that it is unfair to describe the Republican Party as America's version of the Nazis. It just isn't true that they are as deranged as the Nazis ended up being back in the days of the Third Reich.
At least not yet, anyway.
But I do think it is fair to say the Nazis under Hitler were Germany's version (at that time) of America's Republican Party. It's an important distinction. First, the similarities between the Nazis and America's Republican Party...
The Nazis were the German equivalent of the Republican Party because---generally speaking---both parties appealed to the same 'constituencies.' (Important: it may be true that the majority of America's [nigger-hating] racists identify with the Republican Party, rather than the Democratic Party, but it is not fair to suggest that the Republicans, as a whole, are racist.)
To understand the political position of the Nazis during the 1930's, you merely need to understand the kind of people who supported them financially and who voted for them in the elections. The Nazis' Number One Constituency: anti-Communists. Generally speaking, the Germans who put Hitler into power were the wealthy conservatives who feared Communism more than anything else.
The Nazis may have included the word 'socialist' in their party name, but there was nothing socialist about the Nazis agenda. Political parties in Germany at the time liked to use the word 'socialist' to express their ideal of "one people" united in their sense of community. For the Nazis, of course, the community they had in mind was the Aryan community.
They did not call themselves 'socialists' because they wanted the German economy to be run by the German government. Quite the contrary. According to Albert Speer, Hitler's economic czar, Germany was one of the last of the major belligerents to fully mobilize their economy via government dictates in order to optimize war production. Heck, by the end of 1942, America's economy was far more 'socialist' than Nazi Germany's economy had ever been during the previous years of Nazis rule.
At the time of Speer's accession to the office, the German economy, unlike the British one, was not fully geared for war production. Consumer goods were still being produced at nearly as high a level as during peacetime...Few women were employed in the factories, which were running only one shift. One evening soon after his appointment, Speer went to visit a Berlin armament factory; he found no one on the premises.
During the war, Hitler was so conservative, he preferred that German women stay home and raise children rather than help to fight Germany's enemies. He may never have been all that religious himself, but he like to present himself as the Christian church's protector from the godless Communists and the Jewish liberals who supported them.
Hitler was a patriotic, conservative guy who suggested the 'implicit goodness' of the Nazis (in the minds of his followers) through his constant condemnations of those who were not part of his virtuous group. You know, the people who threatened all that was good about German society? It is the same political tactic that the Republicans use.
Like the biblical Pharisees, the Republicans define themselves as 'virtuous' [in the eyes of their followers] through their constant condemnations of the 'sinners' they see all around them, who are not part of their virtuous group. You know, like those liberal Democrats. And so Hitler presented himself as the guy who would stand up to all those who threatened the precious conservative values that German society was based on.
That is why Hitler enjoyed the political and financial support of Germany's upper crust. That is why the Nazis were Germany's equivalent of the Republican Party. It was conservativism, patriotism, and love of country. The German army never had it in their minds that they were the bad guys when they were sent into battle; they were always nobly protecting values that were good from the bad guys that threatened The Good.
In the waning days of the Third Reich, when ultimate defeat was becoming more and more obvious, members of Hitler's inner circle would exclaim that the Americans and British just didn't understand...they were taking on the evil Communists directly; the Allies should be helping the Nazis to defeat the Communist threat. That is how they saw themselves...
So how are the Republicans different from the Nazis? Well, obviously their behavior and rhetoric has not quite reached the level that ultimately consumed the Nazis, but it does seem as though they are continuing to move in that direction.
Here's the thing the American people need to understand: There is absolutely zero chance that America's democracy could every be threatened by a left-wing dictatorship. America's upper class would never allow it. There is, however, a very good chance that American could see its democracy disappear one day following a right-wing coup.
And yes, they'd be waving the flag every step of the way...