I think that you're absolutely correct, re: Godwin's law.
But, I also think that history is extremely instructional. For instance, I recently finished Churchill's "The Gathering Storm" - his memoir covering the early 30s to 1941. It reads like something straight from today's headlines, with Obama playing the part of Chamberlain, and Putin playing the part of Hitler.
Truly, there's nothing new under the sun. Pols (and a whole lot of others who never bother to crack a history book) would do well to rememeber that, IMO.
Pols = Politicians. For clarification...