I've been thinking about this lately because I also hate the TSA way more than is even remotely rational.

Even for frequent fliers, the TSA is pretty far down on any rational list of complaints about government. I fly almost every week, but in the past 12 months I have probably spent a lot more time at city hall on a stupid residential parking permit than I did in (non-customs) airport security lines.

In addition to personality, a lot of people project much larger political ideologies onto the TSA. You see a lot of that even in this comment section.