One of the main reasons HOAs are un-American is they fail to allow legal recourse when they violate the rights of the property owner. If they foreclose on a home as a result of fining homeowners for constitutionally protected activities (i.e. hanging a flag in a window that requires trespassing to view the "violation"), the homeowner doesn't have the ability to hold the HOA accountable for violating their rights. No other government body in the US has the same kind of protections from legal recourse.