One thing is that, unlike any other Western democracy that I know of,

...One thing is that, unlike any other Western democracy that I know of,
this country has operated since its beginnings with a basic distrust of
government. We are constituted not for efficient operation of government,
but for minimizing the possibility of abuse of power. It took the events
of the Roosevelt era -- a catastrophic economic collapse and a world war --
to introduce the strong central government that we now know. But in most
parts of the country today, the reluctance to have government is still
strong. I think, barring a series of catastrophic events, that we can
look to at least another decade during which many of the big problems
around this country will have to be addressed by institutions other than
federal government.
-- Bobby R. Inman, Admiral, USN, Retired,
-- former director of Naval Intelligence,
-- vice director of the DIA, former director of the NSA,
-- deputy directory of Central Intelligence, former chairman and CEO of MCC.
[the statist opinions expressed herein are not those of the cookie editor -ed.]