It's certainly antagonizing to me, but maybe that's just because I work for the government and like to think that I do extraordinary work.

Hey, don't worry. Everyone who pays taxes works for the government :-)

More like investors... or subscription customers. But not employees.

I think your metaphor is going in the wrong direction! Customers and investors have a choice. We pay the government or we get locked in a box we helped pay for (-:

Analogy still holds. Democracy ostensibly allows choice. If you have no choice, it’s no different than a monopoly.

Did you work for the Bush administration? If you did, you should probably accept the criticism. If not, well, how is 20 year old criticism of the government any skin off your back?

Depends on how you take it. I worked for the government during the Bush administration, but not in the administrative staff itself. It's just a shitty and unnecessary jab that rubs me entirely the wrong way.

Well, yes, it was a shitty and unnecessary jab. Sorry for that. But really, it was a jab at the GW Bush White House administration, not the civil service. I grew up a great fan of the US and Bush-Iraq felt like something important in the world had died. It felt like stupidity on a generational scale, that would have terrible consequences for the US. And that was before the torture.