Comment by insane_dreamer

I think the difference with Europe is that many countries have been through a form of this authoritarianism before, Franco in Spain for example, and have fought wars over it. They never want to see it happen again. The US hasn't experienced war on its soil since the Civil War and has no idea what an authoritarian government is really like. So most Americans either 1) believe the propaganda of a "strong" America (just like the Germans who supported Hitler), 2) think it's not that bad so long as they still have their cheeseburgers (so to speak), 3) think that it's pretty bad but there's nothing they can really do or it's not worth risking life and limb over, or 4) are horrified by where we're going and willing to risk life and limb to stop it. The latter are a very small group, whereas in Europe they'd be much larger. Europe already has a history of nationwide worker strikes whereas that has never been done in the US (also much more difficult being such a large country, but even statewide general strikes haven't happened).