Can you specify the things that make you say the comparisons aren't realistic?There really is not realistic comparison between today's U.S. and Italy or Germany of those times. That does not mean that superficial people cannot be led astray in America today. That is a human foible that is always a danger. What seems most disturbing is that more and more "populism" is dominating politics and less and less substance. It is all emotion, impressions and other such silliness. America has cornered itself into two sides, which only serve to maintain one another, and is thus at the mercy of the merciless.
I'm not claiming the comparisons are perfect but I'd like to know what makes them unrealistic as opposed to simply not met.