April 19: A Great Day to Distrust Government

April 19 marks the anniversary of Lexington and Concord (1775), the Warsaw ghetto uprising (1943), and the day the FBI finished off the siege at Waco, Texas, that left nearly 80 civilians dead (1993). It is a good day to think of liberty and the timeless struggle of the state vs. the individual. How fitting, then, to see that American distrust in the federal government is near an all-time high of 80%.

Trust in the federal government was tending to decline until 9/11, when American faith in the warfare state and Pentagon skyrocketed, despite 9/11 being one of the most conspicuous and important government failures in modern memory. But this trend appears to have reversed with the bungling of Bush in his foreign wars, after Katrina, and in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. Obama is only increasing mass distrust in Washington. This is all to the good.