Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 election but his coalition overthrew civil society. with "The New Federalism" . The idea was or is "benign neglect" which is like leaving a barking dog outside with the expectation that it will "learn" to not bark. This left State Government to do what thou wilt or not regarding local government with absolute immunity, qualified immunity, good faith immunity and cartoon depictions from elementary school "social studies" books showing people in colonial garb at a water color depiction of a local town hall that exists nowhere. Out of all government officials in the USA the ones that care the absolute least are local government officials and they are now the ones that Rule. What are the goals of the - wait what is it - the Federal gov. the national gov or just the war against the world gov ? What about the states ? What about local gov ? O we take care of the streets sort of , pick up your garbage and depending on where you live once in a while somebody gets murdered and sometimes they find out who did it or appears to have. From my perspective there are no aspirations to have any sort of civil society. If someone doesn't like you they harass you local gov says go lease a lawyer which creates a monopoly and your left with the choice to knuckle under and submit to illegal activity local government allows to go with impunity or lay out $10 grand for a lawyer that maybe is able to buy you a few years of piece, but probably not. That will costs much more and they can't drop everything just for you. All of which breeds ruthlessness which is rewarded with cash flow and then you buy your rights from people - you pay protection. And then watch television and pretend reality is not what it is. Unless you're really ruthless then you get to travel abroad.