AP Editorial: America founded on trust of govt.

In a June 7 editorial the AP's Washington bureau chief, Ron Fournier, advances the notion that America was "founded on the principle of trust" in government and elected leaders. Now, it seems to me — and I might be reaching here — that the Founders felt just the opposite: that individual life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were the principles worth fighting and dying for against the imperial British government. Indeed, it was a well-founded distrust in government, and disdain for the status quo, that spurred a revolution toward American independence. And, so far as elected leaders are concerned, Thomas Jefferson said, "[L]et no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." But who am I but another skeptical American who is obviously contributing to what Ron Fournier and the AP see as a troubling trend of distrust in government...more