Democracy ..... over-rated?

[Ryantology]

Certainly, although it must be said that Hitler used very subtle tactics to bend people to his will.

There was very little about Hitler that could be called 'subtle'. He was never one to hide his hate and bigotry too far behind a euphemism and he didn't even make much attempt to hide his intentions. While chillaxing in Landsberg, he dictated as Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess precisely what he intended to do if he got the power he wanted, from controlling the populace to elimination of the Jews to a genocidal crusade against Russia and Bolshevism. Anyone who read this thing and took it seriously could not have been even a little surprised by, well, anything which followed, except perhaps for the fact that he managed to pull a lot of it off. Mussolini described the book as full of common cliches.

Based on what research I've done on a topic (merely out of personal interest, mind), the idea that Hitler the Supreme Manipulator is a giant myth. He was more like an angry toddler who had the charisma and force to convince other people to be as angry as he was. It only worked because enough of the German people heard this and thought "okay, that sounds reasonable".

As an analog to modern America, people like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney aren't subtly manipulating people into accepting their nightmare vision of America, they are tapping into, and solidifying, a vision of America large parts of the electorate already desire.