A few thoughts about "The Government."

When it comes to how people in the USA think about their government, many people reply to polls like this  , or this stating that they distrust "The Government"  (a nebulous, poorly defined thing but seemingly meant to be the Federal Government of the USA). I place responsibility for this trend in thinking directly upon They.
Who are They?  In this case, I am referring to the political operatives and propagandists of the far right, or Conservative movement. Unlike the rank and file Republican of old, the far right Conservative movement believe in (as operative Grover Norquist once said) "making government small enough that we can strangle it in the bathtub." There are two reasons why They want to destroy the federal government. The first one is a sense of neo-confederate-ism, in which they claim that "States Rights" should triumph over all. Why make this claim ? because then they could run each state as a Fiefdom, and make whatever laws they want.
Jim Crow, ban abortion, ban personal ownership of firearms, whatever they want. The second reason They want to destroy the Federal government is because then the entire Federal Law and Code of Federal Regulations becomes -- if not null and void -- irrelevant and unenforceable. To achieve these goals, there are two things They want you to believe: first, that voting makes no difference. Just look at the past 13 years and tell me voting made no difference. Second : That Government is the problem. The thing that you need to remember -- paste this in your hat! -- Government is the rules that keep the villains from stealing everything and leaving nothing for anyone else. Government, in the United States, is run by the people down the street from you. They're ordinary people who make average salaries and who put their pants on one leg at a time. Yes, of course cheaters want you to throw away the rule-book. Because then they don't even have to worry about the rules. They can put chalk in milk, put rotten meat in sausage, pave roads with oil coke and sell pills made of corn starch as medicine meant to keep your heart from failing. Go ahead. Kill the Government. And then when They come to tell you you owe them 240 house payments now or you can live in the street, you'll see why we have government.  
(n.b: of course Government also exists for other purposes, but I wanted to emphasize the fact that it exists to protect the people from the crooks. )