Originally Posted by Josef K

I'm on a phone so I can't respond to this as thoroughly as I'd like, but very briefly, three responses to your last point. First, I have no idea how much money you have, but it isn't necessarily the case that a Republican government means lower taxes for you. To some extent it's an issue of what's spent where, and if you'd like a tiny bit less spent on the military and a tiny bit more spent on helping those in need, I'd suggest voting for the Democrats. Second, the government has the means to do good far beyond what you do. This isn't to belittle anything you do to help people, but the government has the ability to do things that you simply can't. Third, to this argument about how it isn't real good being done because your heart isn't in it, try telling that to the people (hint: everyone) who are helped by tax revenue. "Well, I would have loved for your kids to have schools that aren't falling apart, for your roads to not be filled with potholes, for you to be able to feed your family, but I thought tax money wouldn't actually make a difference unless my heart was really in it."

Tl;dr: You might have the privilege of saying you don't want to pay taxes because you don't think you do good by paying them, but I'm telling you that none of this is meaningless to the people who are helped.

Of course, all of this assumes that your thoughts on the two parties, which I disagree with, are right, but whatever.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.