“I think a more fundamental question here is, how did the people of the United States and the United States Government come to be adversaries?”
That is the real and horrible question. I wasn’t ashamed of my government in the 60s...not too much so, at least.
Perhaps the Anti-Federalists were right, and the US Constitution put too much power in a central government. It works OK as long as the population is a moral population, which largely self-regulates, but fails when people without morals take over. In today’s America, the federal government looks for excuses to take power over people and rule them.
I think another part is the increasing urban outlook in the US. A farmer or rancher HAS to be self-sufficient because there isn’t anyone else to do things for him. A rural kid learns early on to do things for himself. It seems to me that city folk want their buses & subways, want their cops, want to be taken care of in everything. If you know a call to the cops means someone MIGHT show up within an hour, you believe in owning guns. If you believe in your stupid city heart that the cops are seconds away, then you might accept the idea that Mr Cop will come to save me.
I’m very pessimistic about the future of the USA. I think the poor have figured out they can vote themselves other peoples money. I also think they figured out that tribal politics - give X to people like me - works well. The US government seems much more oppressive and unrepresentative today than in was in 1760, and what is the purpose of a Constitution if 9 judges in black robes can add, “Thou must admire homosexuals” to it any time they feel like it?
“what is the purpose of a Constitution if 9 judges in black robes can add, “Thou must admire homosexuals” to it any time they feel like it?”
The three branches can each do as they like, for as long as no one stops them.