[southern rock]

but there horror stories the other way too...people painting their houses pink and purple, or keeping 4-5 cars on the yard, etc

That's private property for you. Are you against the concept?

- the kind of thing that can also drain 10s of thousands of dollars from your home equity

Sorry, but the constitution doesn't mention your home equity.

[C. Edmund Wright]

It’s not a Constitutional issue either way. Your right is your choice of neighborhood, NOT to force on the neighborhood what YOU want - be it an HOA or nothing.

And HOA has nothing to do government - it’s a mechanism of self government of a very narrow swath of life. I can understand not wanting to live under an HOA, and I can understand wanting to also. It’s called liberty, but there’s zip zero nada analogy that you are trying to make.