Well, if we had a rehearsal, I missed it. Why are we always caught flat-footed?
I would guess because we have a constitution that we think is supposed to protect us from abuses like this. We're busy perusing our chosen paths to happiness and we forgot liberty requires eternal vigilance.
We were naïve enough to believe we put people in office who were going to represent us and uphold our founding documents with honor and integrity.
I dunno, I am sure you can add to the list....it is quite long.