Absolutely! Very well said, again.
I live in a very rural area in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. My neighbors and I have a barter system that we set up a several years ago to keep out of sight of the government in our daily commerce between one another. One of the primary reasons for doing such was to be prepared in case we ever faced a situation with the government which we seem to be approaching right now.
It gives a small comfort at least that we might ignore much of the government mess right now and go about our business. Many in my community have relatives who made whiskey back in the day and were able to pretty much ignore the Yankee government we have never trusted. As long as they didn’t trade outside of the community, they were safe and were more or less invisible.
Thanks, and it's reassuring to hear there are communities that are strongly knit together. as my handle implies, I attended the University of Washington, and I still live in the liberal hell hole. The state itself is one of the most beautiful in the nation, but the politics is down near the ugly end of the spectrum (although not as bad as IL, NJ or CA). I am currently looking for an opportunity (read that job and living arrangements) outside of the immediate Puget Sound area where I can find a community that is both a bit more conservative as well as more neighborly (which are probably related).
You may not be familiar with the political/geographic situation in WA, but there are 3 primary counties that are democrat, but they are the 3 most populous ones. The rest of the state is largely conservative...but they're out voted, and in some occasions just cheated in the elections, by the 3 big counties. ACORN was caught tampering with the election in WA previously.