I have been surprised at my fellow citizens willingness to trade their personal freedoms for security. At one level, I suppose I'm not surprised. People are afraid. As Maslow demonstrated a long time ago, our needs are hierarchically arranged.
Personal safety comes before more abstract needs like freedom.
But I would suggest that this is sentiment does not reflect America at its best. Our forefathers did not die to secure our safety. They shed their blood so we could be free. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but we had better understand the difference between them. If we surrender our freedom, we will be neither free nor secure.