We rightly vilify the Third Reich, but the lesson of history is not that the Nazis were intrinsically evil; it's that any culture has the capacity to normalize and systematize its own unique brand of evil, via a thousand baby steps.
Just because America is not and never will be Nazi Germany, that's no reason to accept or ignore the American flavor of fascism that has been quietly brewing for decades.
The first thing the Nazis started doing when they got power was set up a secret investigative unit. Where they started creating detailed records of all of their enemy targets (starting w/ the communists and the competing political party). This intelligence was then used by the SS/SA to harass, round up and assassinate anyone who was a threat to their power.
The intelligence agencies were the foundation of Nazi fascism. The signs of power abuses were present in these agencies way before the Gestopo became publicly infamous for targeting Jews.
I've very much come to hate Godwin's Law. There are important lessons, perhaps the most important, to draw from that dark time of history, and we won't see them if we insist that the comparisons are only apt if every little thing is exactly the same, or as 100% evil as the Nazis. There should have been far more attention paid to the specific comparisons of the Patriot Act to pre-conditions of Nazi Germany, rather than getting distracted by "BUSH=HITLER LOL".
Just because America is not and never will be Nazi Germany, that's no reason to accept or ignore the American flavor of fascism that has been quietly brewing for decades.