Because, it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much, soon to forget it.
James Madison MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE (1785) ¶3
The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962-77, 8:298-304

It's way too late to "take alarm." The precedents have been set in concrete. And you were not an "alarmist." You are not a real American.

Men like Sam Adams and John Hancock were "alarmists" and "extremists." They tossed tea into the Boston Harbor and called their government a "tyranny." You, on the other hand, are a zombie. You work your boring 9-5 job like a worker-drone. You say nothing when the government takes your paycheck for a Wall Street "bailout." You say nothing when your government kills more children in Iraq than it did people in Hiroshima.

"Alarmism" is the combination of not trusting the government and hating the State.