[Preechr]

Oh I think it did, though. Despite all my railing against such notions, you still long for an honest politician that you can vote in and then trust to act honorably in your behalf... so you can stop worrying about this stuff. You ARE Joe Six-Pack, Emu.

Problem is, there IS no honest, trustworthy politician, just as there IS no inherently beneficial government you'll never have to keep a constant guard against. The protections FROM government built into our Constitution make it very clear the framers understood this to be the case. They knew that, left unchecked and unhindered any government will quickly devolve into an authoritarian nightmare. The only reason, in fact, that every government in history did not eventually regress into something along the lines of Castro's Cuba or Pol Pot's Cambodia is because each was stopped by SOMETHING, be it threat of revolution or civil war or even the vigilance of it's citizens when it comes to protecting rights and freedoms already established.

Joe Six-Pack doesn't want to be vigilant any more then he's willing to do something for himself when other people are beating down his door to do it for him. He doesn't want to be bothered with wondering whether accepting stuff for free today might have any adverse affect on tomorrow, and he's content to trust what's told him as long as it sounds nice and the person talking isn't wearing a hat that says "I'm Lying."