# A question about Hitler coming to power. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012 "2008-11-16T18:09:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/61 "2008-11-18T18:53:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > One of the ironies of history is that Hitler had much better political sense than his generals and much worse military sense. Which isn’t that much of an irony. You would expect a politician like Hitler to have political sense, and generals to have millitary sense, rather than the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/62 "2008-11-18T19:25:03Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Which isn’t that much of an irony. You would expect a politician like Hitler to have political sense, and generals to have millitary sense, rather than the other way around. I think the irony he was referring to was that Hitler took personal control of the military conduct of the war while leaving politics to others (once he became Fuhrer). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/63 "2008-11-18T20:29:34Z")
I had in mind that Hitler is usually credited for the military successes that Germany had while his political maneuvering before the war is downplayed, or just ascribed to his megalomania. It’s the other way around. Hitler’s military successes mainly consisted of overrunning unprepared areas. Prior to that, his political gains had returned everything lost in WWI and had placed him in control of all Central Europe. Had he stopped there, Germany could have grown in power for decades. Instead, he lost everything. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/64 "2008-11-18T21:31:29Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > My apologies. The way I read your post, it seemed that you introduced it in the first place. I still don’t understand how we can interpret it any other way. **Deeg** said that people have the power to fool themselves when their perceived prosperity is at stake, and **Balthisar** gave as examples Bolivia (Morales), Venezuela (Chávez), the US (Obama?) and said Mexico was saved by “a statistical anomaly” (presumably this was Calderón’s victory over López Obrador). In Canada, on the other hand, the voters didn’t “fool” themselves and reelected the conservative government. If this isn’t what **Balthisar** meant, what is it? ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/65 "2008-11-18T21:31:58Z")
> [@](#): > > “There were plenty of Americans that got elected to, at least the level of Governor and Senator, by espousing racist hatred that was little different than Hitler’s.” > [@](#): > > "Calvin Coolidge was an open Klan supporter, and possibly a member; Warren Harding might have been a Klansman, but the evidence is slight. " Not to thread hijack, but as long as you all went first: perhaps the most racist U.S. President of the 20th Century was Woodrow Wilson. Not only sympathetic to the Klan, he and his administration were eugenicists. See here: [http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-09-14-book-usat\_x.htm](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-09-14-book-usat_x.htm) And, of course, the excellent-yet-always terminally misunderstood _Liberal Fascism_. [Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning: Goldberg, Jonah: 9780385511841: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385511841/ref=cm_rdp_product) There was just something in the water back in the early part of the 20th century, no matter which country you lived in-- fascism and communism (but I repeat myself) was all the rage across the world, and racism was often a major component of each of these movements (insofar as each “ism” thrived when “the other” was targeted-- whether they be American blacks, German Jews, Russian kulaks, Italian monarchists, etc). ---
**Author:** ![datasos\_adv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@datasos\_adv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/datasos_adv)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/66 "2008-11-19T07:47:07Z")
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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/67 "2008-11-20T02:25:06Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > I still don’t understand how we can interpret it any other way. > … > If this isn’t what **Balthisar** meant, what is it? Yes, but I didn’t want to bring a debate in GQ whether we picked Obama because he was preferred vs. McCain, or whether it was a reactionary choice against the status quo in all of the other examples. Canada was mentioned to point out balance in the status quo. It’s _obvious_ in all of the cases that the person was chosen by popular vote (“preferred,” duh), but it has everything to do with the reasons, which is very much a fair response to the quote I cited. The risk is there are genuine Democrats who don’t recognize the reasons for Obama’s election, and will separate the United States versus all those far away poor countries without recognizing that the reasons are the same. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/68 "2008-11-20T03:31:37Z")
> [@](#): > > There was just something in the water back in the early part of the 20th century, no matter which country you lived in-- fascism and communism (but I repeat myself) was all the rage across the world, and racism was often a major component of each of these movements (insofar as each “ism” thrived when “the other” was targeted-- whether they be American blacks, German Jews, Russian kulaks, Italian monarchists, etc). So when gays and immigrants are the targeted other, is it fascism or communism or both? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012/69 "2008-11-21T13:27:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So when gays and immigrants are the targeted other, is it fascism or communism or both? Is generic authoritarian nationalism an allowable option? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hitler-coming-to-power/473012.md?page=3)