Random thought: Perhaps the most invidious piece of furniture in the American mental room is the idea that the federal government is "our government."
It's a bogus piece of furniture, of course. It has a semblance of truth: we elect the people that, in theory, control the government, but it's merely a theory. Government has assumed such dimensions that it is now a self-perpetuating machine with its own appetites, patrons, stakeholders, weapons, and rights. It is, with no exaggeration, much like The Blob (from Wikipedia: "The Blob grows in size every time it consumes something"). Throughout the past 100 years, every time government acquired another power (Federal Reserve, the 16th Amendment, Social Security, etc. and etc. and "weep" etc.) it became bigger and more unstoppable.
The only way to kill The Blob is to stop feeding it, but if we continue to view The Blog as part of ourselves, it's not going to happen. No one (save a few nuts and zealots) likes to start themselves. And so The Blob grows.
We need to smash that invidious piece of mental furniture.
