You write in your DKos diary (which you should cross-post here)

I lived (briefly) in Spain in 1971 when Franco was still in power. I later had many friends who fled from Pinochet for their lives. So I have some experience of what I speak of here.

See? That is the problem. Americans by and large have no living memory of government oppression. They can't relate. That always happens to others. It can't happen there. They're upstanding individuals. They pay their taxes.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides