I've been a conservative my entire adult life.."
A pro-Big Government "Conservative"?...
What exactly is big government? I was forty years old before I heard the first thing about the Postal Service being a supposed affront to the idea of limited government. Most people who are working in government are just trying to make a living, playing the game by the rules now in effect. They aren't trying to make a political statement. They're just trying to survive. They aren't trying to exploit their fellow citizens. Those citizens that they supposedly exploit are their friends and relatives.
One can make an argument that their jobs are unnecessary or counterproductive, but I don't see a need to portray all civil servants as traitors to decent society. They are people who are no different than anybody else, not an alien force that seeks to oppress their fellow Americans.
The real argument should be with the people that wrote the rules of the game, not the people who must play by those rules.