Which, I might add, is a common disconnect in conservatives, and causes the various contradictory positions you rightly note in many Republicans. Another good example: Government has no right to take, and every obligation to defend, all life—except those too old, infirm or underpaid to feed, house and provide themselves medical care, who are on their own, and, of course, heinous criminals, whom government is actually obligated to KILL. The rule of thumb is that when politicians do things one supports they are faithful public servants implementing the democratically expressed will of those who elected them; otherwise, they are tyrants.


In republican and democratic states, community DOES mean government, or rather, government means community: Community exists in many other forms than government, but unless one believes all elections rigged, it manifestly exists throughout that one. Collectives mean community; any human collective can be accurately defined as a "a community of individuals," and largely is. Even were that not true, the statement "We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together" covers far more than just government, though it obviously covers that, too. It covers entrepreneurs and investors, as well as employees, consumers and yes, even government.

The only people who made it exclusive to one facet of community are the Republicans who had entrepreneurs and investors on stage to pat each other on the back while employees, consumers and government workers who contributed watched on TV, wondering why the Republican Party does not think them worth mentioning.


That claim was conceded the moment the RNC brought business owners on stage to thank people without whom their success would have been impossible. Now we are just debating whether they included everyone they should have, or whether "Mitt Romney built that."


The roads were already built and the municipal bonds already bought by whom, the Magical Capitalist Individualism Fairy? How 'bout GOVERNMENT. Government did not create community, no, but community created government as an extension of itself. Or at least you better hope it did; if the US government, at the local, state or federal level, represents any single individual exclusively, I guarantee it is not you.


The people built the government, which is an extension and servant of them; it is right there in the first words of our highest national law: "WE THE PEOPLE...." The Framers even wrote it much larger than the rest of the words in case someone was so myopic they thought the federal government some tyrannical individual instead of MANY individuals democratically chosen by all legally voting individuals to represent them.

If that democratically elected government does not do everything you think it should, or does do things you think it should not, that does not mean it is tyranny, it means you should run a more effective campaign in the next election. I am no more fan of adventurism (as distinct from defending the US and its existing overseas interests) than you are, but the Senate legally authorized the Iraq war so all I could do is try to elect a president and Senators who would legally end it.