Legit questions, maxie, and at least you showed thought.
Actually no, I don't like the health care plan, which was originally the Republican plan, to purchase private health insurance. It means we are paying for their profit and CEO salaries. I'd much rather have real national health. I'm not sure what you mean by subsidize lifestyles so can't answer that. Yes, I do think we should pay different tax rates. It's called noblesse oblige - position carries responsibility. As for school choice, it becomes elite private schools for the rich, religious propaganda for the middle class, and shit schools for the poor. I'd far rather have good schools, it is possible, and I'd willlingly pay for it.
I think our fundamental difference, maxie, is that you see individual. Alone. I see individual rights (reproductive choice, marriage, et al, and yes, even smoking pot in private) but I also believe, absolutely and firmly, that we are NOT in this alone. That we ARE part of a community that is not just ourselves or our immediate family. It's the world. It's all people and all species. I mean, I'm past menopause, OK? I'm not getting pregnant. But I feel very deeply denial of reproductive choice. I feel the horror and fear of a woman forced to carry a pregnancy to term. And I know it also impacts me because of what it says about attitudes towards and status of women as a whole. That's just one example. I feel that it's not enough for me to have really good health insurance, which I do, through my job. I feel I benefit when everyone has good health care and prenatal care and good food and access to healthy exercise so they don't get as sick to start with. I could go on but I think you see the point. We are just coming from a different place.
Sadly most of the so-called libertarians, like Ron and Rand Paul, talk about small government and personal freedom for straight white males. It's not small government if you monitor my body parts!
And incidentally, it's why I'm a socialist, and btw Obama is most definitely not!