Statistically speaking (tally up the dead for example) the biggest threat people face in their lives is not from any terrorist or criminal, but from their own government.
The threat is in not dealing with politics before it deals with you, and a good way to do that is seeing "the government" of a democratic nation as something totally separate from a citizen in that nation... instead of getting engaged because it's so messed up, to disengage further because it's so messed up.