I’m starting to think that the love/hate binary with which Americans view their government is a side effect of our system: in absolute or totalitarian regimes, government is there, and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it.  They accept its dictates for the most part, and just move along.  We’re different.  We’re taught in civics class that we are the government, that we control it, and that it is both our duty and responsibility to maintain it.  The trouble is, when we grow up, we become disillusioned when we learn that this idea is - for the most part - full of crap.

It’s why we deride big government in elections: we want the government to do for us what we want - a sort of consumerist ethos that goes along with our capitalist economy - but we don’t want to pay for it: defense, education, healthcare, and on and on.  The current government is the establishment - our vote embodied - and we engage in this sort of self-flagellation every four years to punish ourselves for the mess we got ourselves into.