How can you tell a Nazi?

Why compare Democrats to Nazis? A lot of people have been discussing this question, because no matter what the mealy-mouthed BushCo dodge is, the fact of the matter is that they made a commercial that is a series of images of Democrats raising their voices intercut with images of one of Hitler's barking speeches. I mean, on the surface it seems obvious--it's a standard Rovian tactic to go after the lowest common denominator. (Remember how McCain's family was used to whip up racism in South Carolina?) But, as a lot of people have pointed out, this has a really good chance of coming back on the Republicans, as people will be seeing this specifically as Bush crossing the line.
But I think there's another reason for the commercial that has little to do with the Democrats and more to do with soothing their voters' worst fears about the direction of the party during wartime. The commercial serves to reassure the voters that it's easy to spot a fascist. You can tell them because they're the ones shouting and goose-stepping. And therefore as long as everyone agrees to abhor shouting and goose-stepping, then there's no chance that neo-fascism will creep into right wing rhetoric.
Well, this should be a very bothersome trend, because it's a deliberate refusal to learn from history. It should be obvious to anyone that if the Nazis had run around shouting all the time that they would have gone nowhere fast. No, fascism had to sell itself on a pile of polite denial and teary-eyed patriotism. We like to imagine that Hitler ran around drooling on himself and shouting all the time and that the Germans thought this was splendid for some reason. But the truth is that a lot of effort was put into making Hitler seem like a great guy. There were pictures of him in the magazines and newspapers of him playing with his dogs, hanging around outside, having fun, looking relaxed. The press cooed over the fact that he was austere in his personal habits, that he didn't even eat meat.
Fascism wasn't sold on hate so much as on nationalism. If you ever get a chance to look at the Nazi kitsch, you can get a good idea of what fascism meant to ordinary people. (Luckily, the Germans love kitsch as much as Americans.) A professor of mine from Germany had a clock from that era that had a picture of Hitler looking over a rising sun gloriously lighting up the German countryside and the look on his face was one of teary-eyed patriotism. A small swastika ticked off the seconds. The swastika actually moved backwards, which our prof interpreted to mean that it was a small act of protest, which is why he kept it. Personally, I agree with Margaret Cho, that we need to keep that kitsch because it reminds us of this fact, that Nazis were ordinary people and not a bunch of snarling monsters. That the swastika was used to keep seconds spoke to me about how ordinary that symbol was. I doubt that the owner bought the clock so much to show support for the Holocaust as to feel proud of his/her country.
The lesson is a deeply uncomfortable one. If America ever turned towards fascism, it wouldn't look like a politician standing up in front of a bunch of swastikas and barking at the crowd in German. Or even English. No, it would be sold with the American flag and the bald eagle and the "Star-Spangled Banner". Just like the Germans, we are vulnerable to arguments about moral purity, that there is a constant threat of sexual perversions that deplete our energies and replace our fighting spirit with weakness.
I'm not saying that conservatives are neo-fascists. But I do find it troubling that they are trying to appeal to people's need to believe that fascism is easy to spot because of the shouting. I hope that it was an accident, and not a deliberate attempt to mislead people on the subject of what fascism looks like.

*Update:

As for the whole "technicality" argument that the "Wild-Eyed" commercial isn't "technically" comparing Democrats to Nazis, since the clip originally came from a MoveOn ad, apparently the Fox News pundits don't actually believe that. Media Matters has a pundit pretty much admitting that the use of the clip is a clever way to juxtapose Hitler yelling and Gore yelling.

But I've got to ask you something. I thought this spot [the Bush-Cheney '04 video posted on GeorgeWBush.com on June 25] brilliantly put together side by side Al Gore's raging, maniacal rant next to Adolf Hitler. It was actually pretty cleverly done.

And then he lies, saying that Kerry sponsored the original ads through "a Kerry machine". Boy, if Democratic party members won't give in and call Bush "Hitler", then they're just going to have to pretend they did.