I've also suffered from the DS and the Fed, and in fact the only time I didn't feel the jackboot on my neck is when I was living overseas working for a decade.  I was in several quite authoritarian places, in fact, and still I made great money and no one ever ever bothered me one bit.  Once you get a taste of that, the US system as it stood until 2016 (and still mostly does) is glaring! KAG!