I've had a lot jingling 'round in my head, and I'll set it down here pretty soon as I will (unfortunately) likely hae a little time on my hands, being in LA this week for work.

You are absolutely right - it's the elephant in the room, that no one sees.

In the US, because it is such an interwoven piece of society, and so casual, there was a term for the movement towards this, after Eisenhower's failed attempt to abort the movement...they called it friendly fascism, I forget who coined the term, but it is apt, and Americans are by and large a friendly lot, in between episodes of violence, either state-sponsored (as in Iraq) or state-sanctioned (as in gun violence on the streets of the US).

In the EU, because people just don't want to believe what the US has become.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill