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As far as Nazism goes I think we're missing one quite important point. (you'll have to bear with me here)
When Hitler rose to power, or was rising to power he promised the people of Germany, affluence and jobs.
The existing rulers of Germay, were old, generally not very good politicians who appeared incapable of getting Germany out of the great depression it had sunk into so the young were swayed by Hitler's oratorical skills and his brand of right wing preaching.
But as well as offering the elcetorate what they wanted he also murdered, bribed and intimidated his way to power. He had his thugs on the doors of every polling station in Germany escorting those who did not plan to vote for Hitler to the booths and threatening them into voting for him.
His political enemies were murdered once he was in power and the army was liberally sprinkled with high ranking officers loyal to him so a mutiny in the armed forces was never likely.
He wiped out the whole SA leadership after it got him to power and executed or removed all army officers thought to be unsympathetic to him. The remaining armed forced leaders were still extremely put out about the unfairness of the treaty of Versaille.
Once he was in power he gradually brought in anti-semetic laws over a period of 2-3 years and used the hitler youth and hired heavies to persecute the Jews.
When Hitler was elected he probably came across as a good choice to get Germany out of a rut and relatively normal, if a bit right wing and fanatical. But it was only after a year or so people realised what was going on.
By then it was to late for the normal man to do anything because groups like Hitler youth, SA, the secret police and the Nazi party itself had created such a climate of fear no one would speak out against the state and it could do what it liked. The Army was stil loyal and there were enough fanatics in teh country to keep a beady eye on those opposed to Hitler.
It took a very special set of circumstances to bring Hitler to power-it was certainly more than patriotism, and patriotism did not keep him their, it was the population's fear of what would happen to them if they did not support the state's actions no matter how appalling they were.
IF YOU IGNORE the policies which isolated and alienated the minority groups in Germany during his rule, Hitler's were very similar to those of the communist state. Lots of workers, state industries and utter loyalty (through intimiation of fanaticism) to the cause.
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