Coming from a 'socialist' (unfortunately not) country I find this really interesting how people can really believe society as a whole is better when everyone looks after themselves, not each other.
Quickly scanning your declaration of independence, I can see no explicit or implicit references to capitalism, in fact the bit that really sticks out is that all men are created equal and that government is there to secure the rights of all men - not just those that have the knowledge, education or resources to secure those rights for themselves.
In fact it sounds much like a socialist (everyone helps everyone else) ideology than a capitalist (each man for himself) one.
As the risk of sounding patronising, America is a fucking young country though and has never been invaded or occupied by a foreign power (unless you count the Europeans most of you are descended from). Give it a few more centuries and I think most Americans will realise that it is a good thing for society as a whole if the rich help the poor.
The issue of state vs federal control is something we are increasingly having to deal with in Europe - it certainly is tough to find the right balance. I think we may benefit from having elections for an EU President in some ways - but certainly without your electoral college or our first past the post systems - they seem to be amongst the least fair electoral systems in the western world.