That is a misunderstanding. No, a government is not an advocate for every private interest shared by sufficiently many people. In fact, the tendency to treat it

That is a misunderstanding. No, a government is not an advocate for every private interest shared by sufficiently many people. In fact, the tendency to treat it that way is exactly what is causing so many problems in the USA. Civil society organizations are what historically made democracy stable in both the USA and in Britain (Francis Fukuyama explores this point in some detail). They counterbalance both the government and commercial organizations. We really should be thinking more about how to organize to make common cause without it turning into a question of who controls the government at a particular time. To a substantial degree, the stable and useful function of government in a market democracy is providing a fair way for different groups to sort out their differences -- in this case, Google and consumers -- and that can't work when the government is seen to belong to one of those groups.