I'm not a Patriot. I'm an anarchist. I don't believe in the legitimacy of government at all. And I don't give a shit about the USA. And here's why: The wealthy elite use the government to protect their interests and extort the masses. The government is, by design, only there to serve the interests of the aristocracy, and freedoms are only granted when convenient, and eliminated when convenient (The Sedition Acts, the Patriot Act, etc). Most laws, by and large, are written by special interest groups and corporations and passed on to the legislature for expedient passing. After all, most legislators are themselves nothing but agents of the aristocracy, the elite, most of them belong to secret societies, and policy is dished out behind closed doors and the common people have absolutely no say in it. Sure, a few bones are thrown here and there to satiate the masses, but ultimately it always stays the same. On top of that, most laws have no other purpose other than that of revenue extraction. The government doesn't give two shits worth a damn about your safety unless it affects them politically. To make a long story short, this same government, which is nothing more than a tool of the aristocracy (such as the Waltons, the Clintons, the Bushes, the Kochs, the Rockefellers, and on and on) created this situation and they are going to maintain it come hell or high water. Now, what you propose to do is--take this government which has caused all these problems to begin with, and give it MORE power, and have us pay MORE taxes. You think you can get money out of politics? Politics IS money. The only solution that will make things better is to either completely eliminate the government, or at least reduce it down to nothing but a public arbitrator. The truth is, the world just is not fair and some people are just intrinsically better than others. To create a more equitable society, just remove the entity holding that back, the government. If the elites are hoarding wealth and using the government's monopoly on violence to protect that wealth, remove their power structure, eliminate their personal security forces, the police and military of the USA. Without government protection, they can face the same violent coercion they use on us.