As with all other instances of wingnut math, no better method of exploding the conclusions of these rugged individualists exists than letting them speak for themselves. "Taxation is robbery," says old guard hard rightie Frank Chodorov in a 7,000 word screed against the "vicarious divinity" of the commons apparently asserted by big government liberals such as myself; there are, after all, only "two positions, and never the twain will meet" on the matter of compulsory taxation. Those who think it is immoral to hold that each individual should seperately pave the road in front of their home and to any destination to which they would care to travel, plumb the sewer and water infrastructure for themselves, patrol whatever sections of town they wish to protect from crime, deploy to whatever nations upon which it might be necessary to commit war, ad infinitum, and those who think being a member of a society means not exhibiting any indication of being a member of that society.

Chodorov's mind-numbingly obvious strawman is consistent with his contention that the United States Constitution is a document that enshrines tyrrany into American life, and is typical of the wingnut mathematician's inability to deal with complexity. Recent research has pinpointed the deficiency in the wingnut brain to a shriveled prefrontal cortex that appears to be characteristic of the regressive's brain structure. This is the portion of the brain that processes complexity, and it handily explains a century's worth of observation of categorical thinking in wingnuts.

The basic objection one generally finds tucked away inside the wingnut's propensity for cursing the darkness is the notion that each person's resources, their money, belongs soley and completely to them. This is an understandable position, even a sympathetic one. Personal property is the most conspicuous signifier of liberty, and as such, must be privileged above any reciprocal obligation to the community. In short, though the ownership of property depends entirely upon the law and order provided by society, hardcore wingnuts see within their membership in that society no obligation to materially support it. Waving the flag, pledging (immaterial) allegiance, and mouthing the words to the Star Spangled Banner are, in the wingnut sphere, all the debt they owe to the civilization that literally enables their safe, comfortable lives.

In Federalist 30, Alexander Hamilton spoke eloquently and authoritatively upon the subject of taxation and the necessity of same.

Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions. A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular and adequate supply of it, as far as the resources of the community will permit, may be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution. From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of time, perish.

The end of the War of Independence brought the thorny problem of governing a nation of free people to the fore. America's first try at a durable government, the ironically titled Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, served in its capacity for a scant eight years before being replaced by the current Constitution. The Articles contained within it the germ of the government we know today, but lacked a critical authority that rendered the central government toothless and the nascent union helpless, the power to lay and collect taxes.

Simply put, despite the protestations of wingnuts and crackpots, the Congress' authority to lay and collect taxes is an enumerated power meant to fund the priorities of the American people and to deal with the unforeseeable exigencies that face every human civilization as a matter of course. Taxation, quite literally, is the most critical ability of any government, because without it, government cannot function at all. Simply put, as government is crucial to life within a cooperative society of free people, so a steady revenue source and the ability to moderate its collection to meet the needs of the community must be built into the powers granted to it.

Which brings us full circle to the Tea Party. In Matt Taibbi's awe-inspiring takedown of the Tea Party and its members' insistence that the government does too much for too many, Tea and Crackers, a theme emerged that has since been repeatedly confirmed by polls. It's not that Tea Party members don't want government services -- au contraire! The ranks of these patriots are swelled with Social Security and Medicare recipients. In fact, these people LOVE government entitlement programs. They just think the wrong people are getting assistance.

It's not that they really think taxation is theft. The services that the United States government funds with the taxes we pay are critical to many a wingnut's continued survival, and they know it. But those same entitlement programs are indiscriminately offered to black people and poor people and, well, they think that's wrong.

I could make any number of arguments against the proposition that only certain people should receive government benefits. It's a fairly easy meme to puncture. But the crux of the issue isn't about who does or does not receive help from their community. Like Thomas Paine said, "If we trace government to its origin, we discover that governments must have arisen either out of the people or over the people." Only by universally awarding assistance to people by virtue of their membership in society, and not by other arbitrary qualification, can we assure that our government remains of the former category.

Taxation isn't theft, it's the price we, each of us, pay for membership in society. It's the dues of a free people who govern themselves, rather than being governed. By claiming the right to be an American, one must also accede to the obligation they owe to America. Otherwise, the nation fails, the society collapses, and that flag you wave, well, wouldn't it just be a piece of cloth?

Without the American governement, formed and sustained by the American people, what possible meaning could the trappings of a dead nation possibly contain? Taxation isn't theft, wingnuts. It's quite simply the only patriotic thing most Americans will ever do with their lives. It is, my mentally deficient brothers and sisters, your duty to your country. So stop yer bitchin'.