Your on the precipice, We. You seem to display a good amount of common sense, something that experience, not schooling, teaches, but are also easily swayed by popularity. Your close to virtue, but closer maybe to the consensus.
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." by Thomas Paine.
This sums up my feelings on government. The facts are, We, that people are the government, large collections of people. I am but one man, who loves freedom. America provides me this freedom more than any other nation on Earth could, for the time being. Therefore, I love America.
No, I'm not a plumber. But, what gives that self-identified educated fool the prerogative to downplay the role of ditch diggers. They work hard for their money, and, usually don't stay in that line of work for long. (Yes, I've been a plumber, and, a ditch digger, in previous lines of work.) People move up through the "classes" throughout the course of a lifetime, and sometimes down, but no-ones position is static. To be your best, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. There is nothing wrong with this. Quite the contrary. Ditch digging is admirable. As are all the "lowly", acutely necessary, professions. What we don't need is more Sociology/Liberal Arts/Psychology degrees, we need more masons and plumbers. (You'll notice he did not divulge whether I was right or wrong on my guess.)