The government: benevolent incompetents or evil masterminds?

I've gotten several emails like this one in response to today's column:
You're confusing the messenger with the message. The message is deep general distrust of the American government, Do you have a problem understanding that? Don't Conservatives have a deep general distrust of government & govt. officials? Things are starting to get out of hand,starting with 11-22-63;we've never gotten over that.


Me: This reader and others are the ones who are confused. Oh come on. I distrust the government but as a realistic conservative I think government is staffed with mostly well-intentioned but incompetent people ?- not because they're dumb, but because bureaucracies are dumb. These conspiracy theorists reverse this entirely. They think government is evil-intentioned but supremely, even divinely, competent. That's crazy-talk, Count Chocula.