Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
I'm getting increasingly tired of "Constitution abuse". The Constitution is not a permission slip for you to do what you want. It is meant as an overarching design document for how a large number of people can enjoy basic freedoms without encroaching on the freedom of the group as a whole. You cannot cherry-pick the parts you like, e.g. second amendment (looking at you, Cliven Bundy) or even the first (looking at you, former Westboro Baptist Church) and ignore the rest. The Constitution does not guarantee "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" but it's often confused with the Declaration of Independence (which does argue for it). In general, though, we're all expected to get along.
No, we're not a communist state, but there's a certain degree of socialism involved, although the point at which you cross from democracy to socialism is up for debate. We do "take from the rich and give to the poor", more or less, although the "rich" have finagled a number of loopholes over the years. My property taxes pay for public school even though I no longer have children in school. I help pay for the fire department, although I hope I don't need to recoup my payments. I pay for "welfare" subsidies, even though I don't use them normally, but I'm glad they're there in case I do, and have used them on occasion.
I have paid a lot into social security, and I doubt I'll see it back, but it keeps my mother off the street. I even collected social security disability and unemploment, which some would call "welfare" (even though I paid for it) when I was quite ill. I didn't stay on it forever, but it helped for the one or two years I was truly disabled and unable to work. Believe me, it didn't pay as much as my regular work, so it wasn't exactly a "luxury" being on it, but I didn't have a choice - it was that, or starve and put my family on the street.
So, Cliven Bundy, pay your frickin' fair share. Remember who owns the land (and maintains it) that you feel entitled to use for free, and invoke the federal government only when it suits you. I pay my share of stuff I don't use. Some things I pay for I use more than my share, others I never do. A truly capitalist state, Ayn Rand style, really doesn't exist. We need to work together.
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