Trust?

I came across an article I read several weeks ago--and remember writing something about it, here or elsewhere.  Geraldo Rivera purportedly asked a caller to some television or radio show, "How could you not trust your own government?"

He can't be that stupid, can he?  Perhaps he is just ignorant.  Maybe he is blinded by a personal philosophy, that government is the be-all and end-all, that all good stems from the government (yeah, ask anyone who's had a run-in with the IRS!).  How can he utter such a ridiculous statement?

It's not that one is a conspiracy nut or an ultra-right winger or Tea Partier.  Rivera, look at your history!  (Of course, we all know that history isn't important.  As I remarked to several colleagues just the other day, it befuddles me that educated people, even those who run and control our schools, give history--and political science and economics...--short shrift.  Apparently, their education was lacking.)  "How could you not trust your own government?"  Hmmmmmm......  Has he ever heard of the Alien and Sedition Acts?  How about the Dred Scott Decision?  What about the Trail of Tears and the Internment Camps of WW2?  What about McCarthyism and the Palmer Raids?  How easily we have forgotten Vietnam.  Oh, I know, I know....  There you go again, that ancient history stuff.  So, shall we think about l'Affaire Lewinski, Ruby Ridge and Waco, and Fast and Furious?

I'll bet, although I don't know, Rivera is one of those who thinks "Bush lied."  Well, could Bush be "trusted?"  After all, he "lied."  And, despite the hagiographic coverage the LameStream Media give Obama, he lies, too--either that or he is extremely ignorant.  Hey, maybe he's both.

Here, here's one that's current.  You figure it out.  According to "our government," 284,000 new jobs were added to the economy in Nov, Dec, and Jan.  How, then, did the unemployment rate actually go up by a couple of tenths of a percent?  Hmmm....  More workers and more unemployment?  Both went up?  So, Rivera, how do I "trust" that, when common sense and logic dictate something isn't quite kosher?  Is someone (maybe "government?") being deceitful, disingenuous, dishonest?  Hardly a great way to foster "trust" in a citizenry.  What was it Mark Twain wrote, "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics?"  Yep, our trustworthy government has learned how to manipulate statistics.

Has anyone ever read Nobelist Sinclair Lewis's novel, It Can't Happen Here?  That might open some eyes.