I completely agree.
However, I think the genius of the government in the last 20 years is that it has learned how to tax the people without the hassle of actually passing a tax in the Congress: by using the Fed powers to devalue currency. The perpetual state of inflation is a tax on the people. It discourages savings and encourages investment in the stock market. The government benfits by floating treasury notes and printing money with reckless abandon, using its position as the central currency of the world to its benefit. However, the stock market by and large is dominated by large multinations that benefit from the excessive regulation in the name of 'public safety'. Excessive regulation benefits the big dogs, and puts the little dogs out behind the shed to be shot. Both the Dems and the Repubs are to blame. Pro-active courts that invent 'rights' that are not listed in the consitution are to blame. And we are to blame for allowing the currency to be decoupled from gold, for allowing the Fed to expand its powers, and for believing that the government can solve all of our problems and remove the risks from the world for us while all evidence is to the contrary.
However, we still have the freedom of speech, and the freedom of information, and the free market. These are the critical rights that will continue to keep American great. We can hedge against the coming five years of adjustment in the markets because we have the freedom of the market.
(Thanks to the new supreme court, we also now have our right to bear arms again. Finally, some common sense returns to the court.)