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I don’t like the taste of gruel and I don’t think I can do 14 hour days of breaking rocks. The people of Cambodia, Russia, Germany, Poland, North Korea and many other places didn’t think it could happen to them, either.

Why don't u try moving to MA and watch it die?
Mr. main street Republican is NO friend of ours My vote doesn't count anyway. Personal decision, this is America still?

I don’t like the taste of gruel and I don’t think I can do 14 hour days of breaking rocks. The people of Cambodia, Russia, Germany, Poland, North Korea and many other places didn’t think it could happen to them, either.

Actually they did think it could happen to them. It's like you picked the worst group of countries you could find to illustrate your point - all of them had very long histories of being ruled by unelected leaders, royalty, dynasties, dictators, other countries, etc. up until the late 20th century.

Cambodia? In the 1800s, either Thailand or Vietnam kept them under their thumb, and then they were ruled by the French and then Japanese and then French again. Russia? They traded tsarists for Communists, and the peasants had only been free for maybe 50-60 years before the Soviets. Germany? I don't even know where to start with that one, but things were so bad and dissent was squashed so severely that many Germans came to American in the 1850s and 1860, and those people had a helluva time for most of the 19th century and a big chunk of the 20th century thanks to royalty, emperors, and other unelected folks. Poland? Poland was ruled by other countries until after World War I, but that was pretty short lived. North Korea? Before going Communist, they were ruled by Japan for nearly 40 years and before that for many centuries they were ruled by royalty (dynasty).

And the European countries you listed had one form of serfdom or another until well into the 1800s.