How Did Hitler Rise to Power?

How does a tyrant rise to the type of power that Adolf Hitler held over Germany? You take a defeated and fractured nation and unite the people by giving them a scapegoat to blame their troubles on. Fear, anger, and bigotry can lead crowds to do things they would never do as individuals. Hitler was in the right place at the right time, and if he hadn’t taken advantage of the situation, it’s possible that someone else would have. Would someone else have used that power in a different way? It's hard to say, because we know how power corrupts, and how power inspires the desire for more power. (via Metafilter)