In theory, this is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but in actuality, it is a government of the privileged and connected, by the privileged and connected, that sit above the people, so as to run this country in a manner that is most beneficial for those favored people. In situations in which governmental agencies are saying one thing while doing another, or simply not disclosing the truth of what they are doing, they find it imperative that those agencies, operatives, directives, and so forth performing such actions do so in a manner that is not available for view or review by the public, which is why so many governmental actions are opaque and classified. The real reason why there are so many governmental secrets has often nothing to do with national security, or anything of that sort, but instead almost always comes down to the fact, that the government doesn't want the people to know what they are really up to, because the government knows that in many cases, what they are doing fundamentally runs at cross purposes to what this country is supposed to represent.
If everything that the government is doing of real importance is classified, top secret, restricted, and so forth, this means for a certainty, that the public does not have enough information to render an informed opinion. In addition, when public debate isn't even initiated on certain programs or actions, with the government performing or doing whatever it so desires, it is the public that will ultimately reap the whirlwind of actions run amok. The government should not now, nor should it ever, treat its citizens, in a paternalistic way, as that is not what our Declaration of Independence was about, yet, the very nature of most secrets accomplishes this very objective.
In point of fact, the government should be held to the highest standards possible, which means, that we expect that our public servants should at all times, behave and perform in a manner bespeaking their obligation to do right by the people that they ostensibly serve. This means that artificial fences, walls, and barriers, that separate the people from their government, have created a world dividing the people from their decision makers so that there are those on the inside that know everything, and then there are those on the outside, that know nothing. This very separation effects a division of knowledge, to which, the people do not know what is truly going on and hence are kept in perpetual darkness.
In actuality, there are very few secrets that any legitimate government needs to withhold from their people so it can be said, that the more open and the more transparent a government is, than the more true freedom that country will have. No people can be free, if they live under a government that keeps the most important and vital issues of the day, away from the public eye, and available only for those that are privileged enough to be engaged with it.
The real reason why America has so many secrets has little to do with protecting our homeland, but rather it is to keep the people in the dark so as to deceive them, and tellingly to separate those people from the ruling class.