the times they are a' changin'!
They changed with 9/11. On top of The Trauma of that, people have Intuition, some more powerful than others, an ability to sense stuff such as when a Truth they do not want to face is in fact True, in this example that their government in fact, is not what they were told all their lives that it was: "Their Protector" but that in actuality their government is not that at all.
While the vast majority will never ever allow themselves to face certain truths many people's "intuition" ends up forcing them to exist in a state where, inwardly, they know that truth to be a fact of their life.
The response?
Could be that a response to this would be to cower in Total Fear. Refuse under any circumstances to Rise Up against said Government. To choose to pretend everything is OK and nothing is wrong. To use a Domestic Violence example:
To just keep letting their abuser beat on them.
An large portion of the residents of this country literally do not give a portion of a fuck anymore about their safety and they've somehow lost that most basic component of being "human" and alive which is Self-Preservation, The Will to Survive.
My theory is 9/11 Rocked Them, initially due to just the sheer Horror of it plus the revelation that they (USA) were not in fact immune to attack, then came "intuition" on many of their parts that "something was just not quite right about the story", something disturbed them and continues to.
And will for as long as they remain alive, whether they realize what that is, that is causing the disturbance within them or they do not.
Add onto that what we have now: Blacks and Liberals getting to set The Agenda for this country. Everything Wille99 laid out above...
A real large percentage of "Americans" have chosen just to lay down, do nothing. But Hope they'll be OK, just hope things turn out OK. But they themselves will do absolutely NO thing to risk getting seen as Counter this Government.
Because inwardly they are terrified.