and not to the extreme left?

when the nazis were rising to power in germany in the late 20s (which was a genuine time of crisis, not this measly little recession by comparison we find ourselves in now), the communists were too. it had been touch and go for a while whether the nazis or communists would become the major extreme party - they eventually did partially because of hitler's charisma, partly because the nazis had the backing of the central parties, as they feared the communists much more.

that's all AS-level history stuff so far, yeah? ok. but look and see today, the extreme right are the ones who make gains - my friends from back home are now represented in europe by a BNP, ex-National Front and ex-British National Socialist Party member (among others, admittedly). yet there's no-one from the left. even the greens aren't lefties these days (feel free to correct me, that's a statement i'm not 1000% sure of).

ok, the left receded during the cold war - obviously so. but history has seen the bad side of extreme right and extreme left. so again, why the right? is it just because the right gives the disenfranchised someone to hate? i'd like to hope there's something more to it than that.

i'm not a political historian - the most modern era of history wasn't my specialty either. does anyone have any ideas? i wanna sit here moping in my leftiness with at least some explanation