Why are conservatives such hypocrites about trusting the government?

A friend asked me this recently. As one of the few conservative-ish people he knows, I got tapped to play the “This is how they think” conservative anthropologist. His question was basically, “For people who distrust the government so much, why do republicans not extend that feeling to the military? They’re probably worse when it comes to corruption than any other part of government.”

Fair question.

The reason that conservatives have a blind spot for the military is the same reason that liberals are willing to trust the government with social programs but not with regulating abortions.

Selective confirmation bias.

Everyone trusts the government to do certain things, how you define those things is what identifies you as a liberal or conservative. The problem lies in the willful blindness of partisans towards the limitations of their preferred policy solutions and how it applies to the arguments of their opponents.

Liberal: Government has proven too susceptible to the whims of old white men and cannot be trusted with fairly advocating for women’s health — hence the Right to Choose must be inviolate and very little regulation of…