The number is startling. Only 22 percent of Americans “trust the government in Washington almost always or most of the time,” according to the Pew Research Center. “Trust in government rarely gets this low,” said Andrew Kohut, the center’s director.

This is a dangerous trend because it reflects our growing inability to trust one another, to work together to solve common problems. And Lord knows we have them: from warring terrorists and warming temperatures to the demographic car bomb of retiring baby boomers that’s about to explode.

Government is not them; it’s us. It’s not some alien force imposed against our will. Government is friends and neighbors, schoolteachers and firefighters, soldiers and social workers. And government is a tax-collection system that finances services many of us use every day, from roads and airports to food stamps and student loans. Those same tax dollars fund agencies that keep our water clean, our food safe and our markets honest.

And yet the numbers are clear: Americans are hostile, suspicious and, at times, wildly uninformed. How often during the healthcare debate did protestors demand that government keep its hands off Medicare?