What surprises me about Celebration and other such gated communities is the amount of control that people, particularly conservatives, accept over their lives.

The very heart of conservatism is the idea of freedom and getting "government off our backs." This is understandable, no one wants to be told what to do or how to live. Wars and revolutions have been fought over such ideas. If the US government mandated details such as what color to paint your house, how clean your yard must be, how big your car may be etc. there would be endless protests and commentary by conservatives, and rightly so.

Yet these same conservatives then flock to gated communities where most houses and yards look alike and there are strict rules about just the things mentioned above.

So why is it bad for the government to make demands but a group of local busybodies with no accountability can demand any whim?

This has real world consequences. A community in Florida started ticketing and towing SUVs and vans that were deemed too large and "ugly". Some don't want to see a boat in the driveway.

Seems to me it's just another example of giving up freedom for security (and community cleanliness.)

-Doughdee222

There are no physical gates around Celebration, but the residents have created their own. There is only one movie theater, and it will only the "right" movies approved by hollywood suits and their focus groups. Ditto the bookstore. Controversy is not welcome in a place that creates the past that never was.

Conservatives love big government, as long as it is *their* big government. The military-industrial complex is virtually unstoppable now. Their jobs are the only ones that have stayed in the U.S. since price is not a factor with the military's buyers the way it is with Wal-mart's (cheaper at all costs). Big Education, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Agriculture is ok by them even though that has given us schools that teach to tests instead of creating the next generation of thinkers in the name of not leaving childern behind, drugs expensive, ineffective or unnecessary drugs with nasty side effects, "health plans" that work harder to not pay benefits than providing necessary care, and corporate farms and genetically modified/chemically treated everything that put the family farmer out to pasture.

I don't mind when conservative foks choose to create their own prisons, but do mind when they routinely reduce services (schools, police, trash pick up, road mainteance, etc.) for the rest of us outside their gates.

This is probably pointless as everyone is so stuck on "conservative" and "liberal" everywhere it seems. Be careful though. My area is suffering greatly in the school system and increased taxes (yes, even to the poor) because people didn't look at the track record of the person but just that they were "liberal". Labeling and condemning based on a label is dangerous.