My generation seems to be leading the charge, as we have for decades now, against government. Not that any higher percentage of us want to join the government, mind you, but everybody in our introspective club has the answer to almost everything. Fortunately, in my case, that is entirely correct, right?

The Great Seal of the United States
One thing that is true is that, after the first grading period, I didn’t have to hand in my homework in what was then called Civics class. Assistant coach Mr. Clausing let those who got an A on each test do their homework unsupervised. Good for him (less to grade), good for me (I’d never been an A student prior to senior year.) Since then I’ve taught U.S. Government to college students in Nevada, where you can’t graduate without passing the course. (Nevada government too, but believe me, that’s another story.) What I’m saying is that, in terms of how the United States Government is constituted, I actually do sort of know what I’m talking about. I’m no constitutional lawyer, but I do know some things, and of those things, here are a few.
First, we are constitutionally a republic. So we’re all republicans, so long as you don’t capitalize that ‘r’. The word republic is straight Latin, and originally was res publica, or public matter. That little word ‘res’ is still used by lawyers to mean “the matter.” Those crazy Romans, after they overthrew Etruscan rule, set up a “public” government for which they elected Senators. You can read thousands of pages of how they screwed up and wound up with an Imperium instead, but you may not need to. The people who wrote our constitution read it all, and they believed that they could put some checks in that would, they hoped, avoid the fate of the Roman Republic for the American one. That’s why we elect the Commander in Chief (CIC) of the armed forces, in fact. In the Roman Republic, loyalty to one general or another caused increasing strife and civil wars. Loyalty to J. C. Caesar was what got him named Dictator for Life, and of course what also ultimately got him killed and his adopted son, after more civil war, named the very first Roman Emperor. Now, you can hate the Prez, but if you’re in the military and the CIC says “jump” the only proper response is to say “How high, sir?” We’ve elected a few generals to the Presidency later in life, but none of them have been remarkable, other than Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. That you’ve gotta love.
Another check on the problems Rome faced was separating the government into three branches. The Judicial is appointed for life and paid well, which is why you can get a supposed ideologue who changes stripes once on the bench. I think that the only way to get removed from the Supreme Court is for the other justices to impeach you, so that’s never happened. Federal judges, of course, make laws all the time through our system of English Common Law. Which brings up something about which many seem to be confused.
I read complaints about activist judges all the time. “They use the bench to make law!” is the shout. Duh. Since before William the Conqueror that’s exactly what judges have been doing. The legislature, or sometimes the king, may pass a statue, but it’s always, since the beginning of time so far as our Constitution is concerned, been up to the courts to interpret what that statute means. Even if the law is the Constitution itself, it is subject to judicial interpretation. Or, put simply, judges make law because that’s their job. Heck, juries try accused criminals, judges just preside over the action. The big thing judges do is interpret law, and that can, as anyone can see, cause a lot of controversy.
The executive power is in the President and whomever he hires to help him out. At the top are Secretaries of this that and the other thing, but in reality every pencil-pusher working for the Federal Government theoretically reports, ultimately, to the President. Just like his generals and admirals. I believe that mostly, when people complain about ‘the government’, they are actually complaining about the President’s employees, one way or another.
Then there’s Congress. A Representative is only there for two years at a time, so those guys are always campaigning. They get to initiate any spending bills, which is why the big show right now is in the House. A Representative is there to handle the interests of a certain number of citizens, his or her constituents. One of the best things your Representative can do for you is to help you sort through problems caused by the Executive bureaucracy. Trust me, when they’re not posturing for the cameras or trying to raise campaign funds, those folks like nothing better than helping people get what they’re after out of their government. And these people have what we in Vegas call “Juice.” That is, they know guys who know guys, you got that? These people come closest to what most people think of as “doing a congressperson’s job.” That’s why the framers of the Constitution put them there, in fact.
Over in the Senate, they have six years per term. Long enough to really hack people off in the first three years and still look good come election time. Senators represent States, not constituents, even though they are popularly elected. And if Representatives have Juice, a Senator has a whole Orchard! All Senators use their considerable influence to further their interests. A good Senator aligns his interests with those of his State. That “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska may seem like an odd thing, but I don’t imagine that the people who would have been using the bridge thought so. A bad Senator uses his influence to further his own interests. Note that when a Senator thinks of his State first, it is these days frequently derided as “Pork.” But, really that’s what a Senator’s job is. What else would you have them do? Somebody has to get the roads repaired, hospitals built, parks kept safe and all that other stuff that government does apparently for free. (It isn’t free, but that’s for another time.)
All together then, we have a Judicial branch of government that interprets laws. Laws are either traditional or enacted by a divided-by-design Congress where Representatives spend their time grandstanding for the folks back home and Senators engage themselves in getting goodies for their States, and an Executive branch including the military which is the part of government that actually does things (or not, if you’re cynical.) If I wanted to design a system whereby a significant portion of the population was going to be sore about what government is doing at any given moment, I doubt if I could improve on what we’ve got.

The Side of The Great Seal that Conspiracy Theorists Like Best
But please, friends and critics, when you do launch into a great debate on the Issues Of The Day, keep in mind that our government is functioning pretty much as designed. Frustrating, ain’t it?