Why live under these conditions?

Back to living in an HOA (homeowners association) community...

Why would anyone choose to live under restrictions that border on loss of constitutionally-granted freedoms?

There's actually a lot of appeal for older folks.

1) The HOA maintains the lawns and removes the snow and you don't have to call vendors, etc .
2) They provide a clubhouse with the facilities mentioned earlier, and it's a short distance away (1/4-mile for me).
3) They provide a lot of activities that you might have to go looking for in a "normal" community.
4) It's nice that your neighbor can't paint his house purple, or mount an old-fashioned TV antenna on his roof, or put 7 million chotchkes in his front yard, or put in a dog run and not clean it up without having a committee of his peers examine a proposal. Drive through (if you can get past the gate!! ;-) and see what a nice community we are.

I thought there'd be a lot of like-minded people and folks from the same socio-economic stratus, but we're more a microcosm of the surrounding towns.

We have the entire political spectrum -- a little surprising in a community of about 700 people. We have folks retired from almost evey job you can think of, also surprising when you consider that homes sold for $200,000 six years ago. We have ex-prison guards, cops, teachers, nurses, CPAs, lawyers, judges, mom'n'pop business owners, small business owners, computer people -- you name it!