This did not originate with me, but I'll proudly quote Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”

But the question is, "do you get value for the money?" Nobody has ever enjoyed paying taxes, Holmes to the contrary notwithstanding. What changed 40 or so years ago was the collapse of American urban life, which convinced a lot of people that they weren't getting much civilization, or the wrong kind, for the taxes they were paying. At the heart of the Republican message since then has been the premise that government is machine for taking money from deserving white people and throwing it away on poor people of color.

the Dems may be the party of "tax and spend" but the Reps are the party of "just spend", which is way more irresponsible. No major war has ever been waged by the country without some sort of tax to pay for it, until Iraq/Afghanistan.