U.S. Moderation Out The Door; The Search For Easy Answers

    What kind of country does the United States want to become? A nation where the voices of moderation are increasingly lost? A nation where political discourse becomes nothing but name calling? Many people dismiss their opponents with simplistic labels; right winger, socialist, liberal, and so forth.
     People with the ability to think for themselves usually embrace ideas and beliefs that cross political spectrums. We are destroying constructive political discourse by labeling and stereotyping.
     The United States is moving to extremes, and losing the center ground of moderation.
     The recent trend to dismiss any news that someone does not like as fake does not help. The internet is full of lies, distortions, and propaganda promoting one hate group or another, but that does not mean that because those idiots lie and create false realities, all of the media is fake.
      If people keep thinking there are simplistic answers to complex problems, we will continue learning the hard way that all this creates is more trouble.
      The U.S. thought all that was needed in response to Al Qaeda and the Taliban was a full scale invasion of Afghanistan. No one wanted to learn from the Soviet Union's experience in Afghanistan, or the British experience, or from Afghanistan's long history. We could have destroyed the Taliban and Al Qaeda with military intervention, but without the full scale invasion. We also had the northern alliance working with us.
        All we have to do, thought Bush and company, is invade Iraq. Everything will be easy and there will be democracy across the middle east after that.
        Over 15 years later, the United States is still bogged down in Afghanistan, with no end in sight. Regarding Iraq, the foolish and reckless invasion led to disaster. (Hopefully a Kurdish country will be established. The one good thing that can come from all of this bloodshed.)
        Obama, also searching for easy solutions, withdrew from Iraq, leaving religious minorities unprotected. Genocide resulted, which may not have happened if not for Bush and Obama.
        Do people honestly think Trump has an answer to the huge, entrenched gang problems that are destroying neighborhoods across the United States because he talks tough about one gang? Oh, the so called right will scream, this is a defense of the vicious gang MS-13. No, destroy MS-13, but be mindful that their enemies will be strengthened, and the United States will still have the same huge gang problem, with or without MS-13. There is no easy answer to the entrenched American gangs and American gang culture that have now spread from the United States to other countries.
        There are millions of people in the United States illegally that are honest, hardworking people that have been doing the jobs that Americans do not want to do. Trump said he would go after the criminals that are here illegally. Even Reagan made an accommodation and opened doors to hardworking people in the United States that were here illegally and that are not criminals.
        There is no Reagan in the white house, and voices of moderation are being lost. Now families will be torn apart as compassion, including the compassion and reasonableness that Reagan displayed, dies along with moderation.
        It is hard to have a discussion about health care without hearing the screams about socialism. France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, England, Norway, The Netherlands, Canada,  Israel, and other close allies of the United States, have universal or widespread health care and are not communist or socialist nations. Millions of people with preexisting conditions may be left in the dust.
        There is a huge problem in the world with Islamic jihadists and Islamists. But moderate and secular Muslims cannot become the target of animosity. Trump may talk tough about the threat of Islamic radicalism, but it is the Trump administration that recently concluded the largest arms deal to Saudi Arabia ever. Make no mistake that the source of much of the Islamic bigotry and radicalism that is destroying this world is promoted by Saudi, Qatar, Iran and other oil rich countries.
        Trump was elected because he told people what they wanted to hear. It helped Trump enormously that Clinton was his opponent.
         Trump diverted attention to Hillary and away from himself. He made promises and boasts that many people bought.
         He had no health care plan, no idea how to deal with North Korea, no idea how to pursue peace in the middle east, no idea what to do about America's gang problem, no idea about America's drug problem, no idea how to stop Russian aggression, no idea how to stop China's destruction of the disputed South China Sea islands, no idea how to bring jobs back to the United States, no idea how to revitalize low income communities, no idea how to drain the swamp that he has now filled with the same wall street people that were swimming before in the swamp, no idea how to stop Russian cyberattacks, no idea about climate change, no idea how to stop environmental degradation, no idea about a lot of things he pretended to know about.
         People fall for  easy slogans and promises. Obama did it with his slogan, "Change You Can Believe In". Trump with his slogan, "Make America Great Again". What will be the next politician's slogan?
           People want easy answers. People are easily seduced. Especially if there is money behind the boaster, or some big name organization (that is how, for example, many ineffective animal related organizations collect millions), or some celebrity.
           There are no easy answers. The world is complex, and the sooner people face that complex reality and quit buying into easy answers and solutions, including those offered by religions and politicians, the better off humanity will be.