I keep seeing variations on the theme of fellow USAmericans getting really angry and yelling "Because they'll kill us!!!" anytime somebody from elsewhere asks why we aren't doing more about the state of our government.
And listen. I say this with all gentle sympathy for the stress you're feeling, but: do you think we're special? That's what authoritarian governments do. That's what every authoritarian government does. Everyone everywhere anytime in history who has resisted an oppressive regime has understood that this was the bargain they were making: the state has both means and license to kill, and if you oppose them - sometimes even in the smallest of ways - they may consider you an enemy of the state.
You're allowed to grieve that. You're allowed to struggle with that. But you must understand that nothing changes unless enough people can come to terms with that and oppose the state anyway. And you must also understand that the longer this takes, the more the state consolidates power and the higher the costs of opposition become.
