Regarding the "government cut in half", thing, I'll tell you a small story that I think illustrates it. I went down to rural West Virginia on a church mission trip in my youth. Growing up, the idea that a town doesn't provide drinking water or electricity was something unthinkable. The country my family comes from was under the Iron Curtain so for a while things were grim, but not "no more rural water system" bad. As it turned out, this little community just an hour from a National Park, was a place where every resident was on well water by necessity. It also was a food desert, and the only place that seemed to have consistent electricity was the local church. These same people would say to us that the government could only make their lives worse. You ask three people you get five different answers.

The US isn't some social democratic paradise, but I'd like to think the people I serve don't resent my existence, you know? I have faith in this country, and I want to do my part to give back what it gave my family when we basically had nothing. I can't pick up a rifle, so I help make sure those who did get taken care of in some small way.