It does not begin with tanks. Not with uniforms or marching music. It begins with a smile - and a nomination. Paul Ingrassia is the man Donald Trump wants to appoint as head of the Office of Special Counsel - a federal agency actually tasked with protecting whistleblowers and enforcing the Hatch Act, the law meant to prevent partisan political influence over civil service. But now, of all people, a man is to take on this task who tramples on the democratic consensus of the United States. A podcaster who describes Andrew Tate, a misogynist charged with human trafficking, as an “extraordinary human being.” An ideologue who calls Nick Fuentes, an openly antisemitic activist, a “dissident voice.” Someone who dismisses the Hamas attacks on Israel as a “psy-op” to distract from Columbus Day and still claims the 2020 election was “stolen” – even though Trump is long back in power.
It is as if the arsonists had been promoted to firefighters.
ngrassia is no accident. He is the face of a new elite that derives its power from the destruction of the law. Their language is modern, their vocabulary digital, but their ideology is old - deeply rooted in authoritarian tradition. Those who speak of “the Matrix,” the “deep state,” and a “satanic elite” are not thinking of the future, but of a past in which people were sorted into categories of enemy and purity. And as once before in history, it does not begin with mass deportations or camps, but with the deliberate dismantling of what is meant to guarantee human dignity: trust, protection, the rule of law.
With Ingrassia’s appointment, America reveals how brittle the facade of republican order has become. The separation of powers - once the pride of the West - becomes the facade of a system long replaced by loyalty. While courts bow, institutions are politicized, and critical voices criminalized, the once freest nation in the world drifts toward conditions it once vowed to fight. This is a “Third Reich state” that no longer marches, but streams. That does not shout its slogans, but likes them. That does not burn books, but manipulates algorithms.
Germany watches - and appears stable.
Because as sluggish as federalism may sometimes seem, it is invaluable in moments like these. No chancellor rules by decree, no party dominates parliament, no court is powerless against the executive. The Federal Constitutional Court is more than a judicial institution - it is a collective memory that resists the temptation of power. In the diversity of parties lies protection, not a problem. And yet - none of this is guaranteed. Even here, the language is eroding. Even here, the right is tugging at the fringes. Even here, there is incitement, relativization, trivialization.
America is no longer the model. It is the warning.
A state that gives up on itself not only loses its soul - it becomes dangerous for those who seek to imitate it. Fascism does not return with marching columns, but with indifference. It does not come with torches, but with comments, memes, and draft legislation. It needs no majority - only a hollowed-out democracy that no longer knows what it stands for.
What remains is the task of staying alert. Staying vigilant. Not because we are morally superior - but because we have learned what it means to be too late.
Because if we have learned anything from history, it is this: dictatorships do not begin with the first shot.
They begin with the first legalized lie.
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