It can happen here

Christopher Browning, in NYRB, reviews three books on Hitler's seizure of power. Unfortunately it's paywalled and they don't offer gift links. You can read the first few paragraphs here, and maybe you can find a copy of the new issue if you want to read the whole thing.

I'll just make a couple of points by way of summary. The first is that Hitler never got close to an electoral majority in a real election, and in fact the Nazi party's electoral fortunes were on the decline in 1932. But a cabal of conservative plutocrats who wanted to end the Weimar Republic and install an autocratic regime thought they could use him to seize power, and then control him. This was, you might say, a miscalculation. Browning quotes Benjamin Carter Hett:

The [political] crisis and deadlock of 1932 and 1933, to which Hitler appeared as the only solution, was manufactured by a political right wing that wanted to exclude more than half the population from political representation . . . . To this end, a succession of conservative politicians . . . courted the Nazis as the only way to retain power on terms congenial to them. Hitler's regime was the result.

The second is that once Hitler did assume power, all opposition was suppressed by an orgy of violence, using Hitler's thuggish militia who were granted status as official police. In case you are thinking that this might galvanize public opinion against the regime, the opposite happened. People quickly fell into line with Nazi ideology, not just for show. They internalized it. Browning goes on to summarize Peter Fritzsche who:

 makes the compelling argument that violence not only silenced Nazi opponents but was also essential in building support. The ongoing violence, choreographed as public rituals of humiliation that portrayed Nazi opponents as weak and ridiculous, turned entertained spectators into accomplices by virtue of their "voyeuristic pleasure." The "wave of denunciation" that swept over Germany broadened the ranks of complicity further. . . . Many flocked to the Nazis as opportunistic "March casualties," but for many others the belief in national community and a restored . . . people's community, now understood as defined by racial exclusion rather than political, social and religious inclusion, was sincere.

Let me conclude with Hett's description of Hitler as featuring:

 

. . . insecurity, intolerance of criticism, bombastic claims about his own achievements, and scorn for intellectuals and experts.

 

Yep folks, that's where we are. Believe it.