Why Do (Some) Americans Hate the Government?

Actually, I’m not talking about all government. I’m talking about the Federal Government. In fact, the United States has the largest percentage of its national workforce of any industrialized country in the entire world (16%) getting paychecks from some government agency. The number one job category in California, for example, is school bus driver.

If anything, many Americans who dislike the feds view their state government as a protection against D.C., even though thanks to Richard Nixon and revenue-sharing, most of the money spent by state governments happens to come from the feds. And by the way, the states where anti-federal government feeling is highest — the Deep South states — also happen to be the states which send less dough to D.C. than any other states and get more federal bucks in return.

The reason I am writing this particular rant, however, is not to discuss anti-federal government attitudes per se. It’s to explain what I believe is the reason conspiracy theories have become so intertwined with political narratives pushed by the POS/GOP over the last several years.

This whole antipathy against the national government first emerged after the SCOTUS issued Brown v. Board of Education in 1953. Prior to that decision, there might have been a few nuts who pushed anti-big government ideas, particularly in…