Are Obama and the American people capable of mimicking a Hitler/Nazi-like experience?

I posted yesterday about the usefulness of comparing Obama directly to Hitler (not useful at all), a comparison I believe is triggered by the vast distrust the American people are developing towards Obama as they realize they were duped.  Tiresias left an eye-opening comment about Hitler’s skills versus Obama’s skills, and about the nature of the American people versus the nature of the German people.  You can find his long, well-analyzed comment here.  My down-and-dirty summary is as follows:

Hitler, while a monster, was an effective leader. In terms of his demagoguery, it was based strongly on flattery: “You Germans are the most wonderful people in the world, and I will restore you to your rightful place.”

The opposite is true for Obama. Obama has proven, to date, to be an ineffective leader. And in terms of his demagoguery, such as it is, it’s based strongly on self-flattery: “You Americans are the debased product of a capitalist slave culture. I am the most wonderful person in the world and you will restore me to my rightful place.”

Of course, there is a group of Americans — the same ones that gave intellectual birth to Obama — who masochistically crave the insults he offers.  They want self-abasement.  They need the flagellating tongue of a great leader to purge them of their legacy of capitalist, slave-holding sins.  They propped him up before the election and they will keep on propping him up, come Hell or high water.

I think, though, or maybe I just hope, that the masochists in American society represent a very small minority, albeit a vocal one with a hand on the media and on education.  Ordinary people, even the ones who hated Bush or who don’t care much about politics, feel that they live in a good place and that they are good people.  They want to become better people, but they are not aroused to action by the increasingly shrill voice of the Scolder in Chief.  His “Hope” and “Change” and “Yes, We Can” have too quickly morphed into an “I am wonderful and you are awful” mode that is anything but inspiring — and we’ve got the numbers to prove that.