Just a quick observation that leads to a bunch of questions:
We, as citizens, trust our elected officials less than we trust, well, pretty much anyone else - appointed judges, the military, even the media.
There's a fundamental paradox there; the people we choose ourselves (and presumable have the most control over) are the people we trust least. Is that because we feel betrayed when they don't act the way we'd like them to? Is there a pragmatic instinct inside of us that makes us content with things we can't control and frustrated with what we can? Or is it simply that we see and hear a lot more from our politicians - and getting to know anyone in power, particularly those cow-towing to us, means getting to dislike them.
