However, since the space by the mailbox is a legal parking space, occasionally the mail carrier actually has to exit his vehicle and walk two or three feet to deliver the mail.

In the neighborhood I live in, the mailboxes are on posts on the street, with eight houses per box. This makes life easier for mail carriers and harder for us since we, not they, have to go out in rain, heat, and gloom of night. They can stay in their cars and simply open the mailboxes from the street side.

For 30 years that has not been a problem. However, now we’ve been informed by someone that in fact it’s inhumane to ask our mail carrier to exit his vehicle to deliver mail.

The message is clearly by some neighbor, but note that the comments are by the mail carrier. That means the mail carrier was at the mailbox and could make notes on the post but couldn’t bother to deliver the mail.

I tried to call the Post Office because I found it hard to believe that we’d been getting mail for 30 years only because our mail carriers were breaking the rules and we’d suddenly gotten a new mail carrier who followed the rules.

Not only couldn’t I talk to a human being at the local post office, but the two places where I was invited to leave a message had full voicemail boxes, which meant I couldn’t even leave a message.

My only option was to contact my congressman. He’s got someone who apparently specializes in dealing with the Post Office – which in itself says volumes about the quality of service the federal government provides – who is going to try to fix the situation.

Now, I know this is a trivial thing, but what’s important is what it teaches us about who is the boss in America and what the government views its role in our life to be.

This situation shows the incestuous nature of government. If the Post Office messes up, my only recourse is to the tender mercies of a congressman. As a citizen, I have absolutely no clout with the Post Office; the employees are essentially unfireable, and their pay is completely independent, in the short term, of their performance.

Similarly, my congressman can ignore me because he knows I will never, ever vote for him.

But even if he does help me, in this case the need to call on him when the massive government bureaucracy trashes us could lead some people to be careful about which politician they give money to or what they say because they don’t want to alienate their only protection from government oppression.

Furthermore, if the congressman’s office does solve the problem, he is not condemned for allowing the Post Office to be so hostile. Rather, he gets kudos for fixing the problem.

It’s win-win for the government and lose-lose for the citizens.

Clearly, in today’s America, the government doesn’t think it works for us. Rather, it thinks we work for it.

That’s why we need to vote for Trump, in spite of all his failings: because Hillary is rock-solid behind the idea that Americans are ruled by a government not representative of the people.

You can read more of Tom’s rants at his blog, Conversations about the obvious, and feel free to follow him on Twitter.