I have no idea where you are on the political spectrum but you are a pretty smart guy.
The balance is how much freedom and income to give away for the perception of safety. I would prefer to give away less freedom and income for the current perception of safety.
I would like to be able to decide for myself what substances I choose to put in my body. I accept that there may be consequences if I harm other people's property or persons from these actions.
I'm not represented by a party that exists in the current political spectrum and I've lost pretty much all hope that we have a healthy or working political system left.
I think that it's unfortunate that these corporate states of america have her citizen's thinking in the binary context you're declaring. The last two presidents, first a republican, then a democrat, trounced all over your personal freedoms. Neither democrat nor republican is even really talking about the appropriateness of our current military industrial complex spending. We (our corporate oppressors) have essentially decided this spending will remain in perpetuity (ratifying the 16th amendment in 1913) after fundraising to finance WWI. Why not? there's big business in war...
I would surmise that the move to the federal reserve system, planned in meetings in 1910 predetermined the need for the constant taxation allowed by ratifying the 16th amendment. Essentially, our government opened up a line of credit against the taxes on income created by us, her citizens.
I also really believe that most of us have more common ground than we realize, and that I also believe we would do really well to leave the scripted talking points in the garbage. Think outside the confines of the presented binary conclusions. Just because something is presented as (a or b) doesn't mean we can't say, fuck all of that, how about c.
I believe you should retain your freedom, your income, your right to your own body and your right to explore your own consciousness. And so should everyone else. What happens though when one of our fellow citizens is unable to care for themselves? How free and enlightened are we if we walk by and ignore our brother or sister? Are we willing to let their life fail because we're free to be unencumbered, regardless? I appreciate the passion for personal freedom and liberty, but what is that, really, if we're all a bunch of assholes - completely lacking in empathy for our fellow man?
At this point our corporate overlords have got the masses pinned into two idealogical camps: (For life at birth, gun control, universally available health care and managed immigration) vs (for life at conception, full gun freedoms, pay your own damn way healthcare and using forceful means to deter immigration). People usually find enough common in one camp or another to back a candidate, and when they get their chosen representative elected, are subject to whatever their candidate promised all the corporations and bedfellows that helped them get into office. They don't care about the ideology they promoted to get your vote, only that they'll be walking away from their tenure in political office with a plush bank account and a primed career.
All of this, is what we the people really need to tear down.
I do my best not to mix my own personal moral convictions with my politics. There are many things that I don't personally espouse, some even from my own concepts of morality, that I would nonetheless fight for another's right's regarding. I believe this separation is integral to being able to approach topics like government formation with your fellow man/woman.
Most don't know this, but our founding fathers were largely following tenants of Deism not Christianity as their religious base.
Truthfully, we were provided by our founding forefathers, a political system that needs constant upkeep and maintenance. Who want's all that when the Kardashians are doing whatever the hell it is we care so much about and our favorite sport team is kicking ass!
I'm not saying 'entertainment' is bad, just that we need to get our shit together and pay attention.
