Real Issues

[DanieltheDragon]

Terrorism is a real issue, so is poverty, immigration, tax reform, crime, gun safety, traffic safety, education, and many others. The question really becomes what are our priorities with regard to these issues.

For example gang related crime and deaths far outpaces that from terrorism, if protecting American lives was our number 1 priority should we not allocate more resources to reduce gang related violence? What about traffic safety? I would garner if we devoted the same amount of resources to medical research as we do terrorism we would protect many more American lives than we do by combating terrorism.

Why does it seem like there is a gross misappropriation of resources in America?

Do we really want to protect American lives?

[Divine Insight]

Why does it seem like there is a gross misappropriation of resources in America?

It's not only a misappropriation of resources, but there's grave disagreement on what those resources should even be.

There are two basic schools of thought:

1. Approach these problems constructively, productively and using positive incentives.

2. Approach these problems with the iron-hand of violent suppression to them.

I personally advocate the first solution method. However there are many who favor the second approach. In fact, I would suggest that many of the religious right favor the violent response as they have been taught that this is how their God deals with his problems.

Donald Trump is clearly in camp #2. There can be no doubt about this. He wants to do the following:

1. Destroy ISIS and "wipe them from the face of the earth" (his own words)
2. Send the National Guard into the inner cities to violently crack down on crime.
3. Send troops into Mexico to violently crack down on the "bad hombres" down there.

All his methods are violent suppression of criminals. And there will no doubt be many innocent victims harmed in those violent processes as well. We are all too aware that often times when a war is waged against drugs, for example, the end-users are criminalized and take the brunt of the violence, whilst the drug lords seem to keep on peddling drugs unimpeded.

Trump's solution to everything is to try to "wipe it out" using violence and threats of violence. But those methods have already been proven to fail. In fact, they often incite even more crimes.

So we don't only need to focus our resources on all of these problems, but we need to do this in intelligent constructive and positive ways.

The United States of America needs a true "Leader" someone who can inspire the masses to improve their own communities using positive and constructive social incentives.

But unfortunately we don't have that now, and we won't have that for at least the next four years. Instead we have a man as our "leader" who thinks that the only way to solve any problem is to hit it with a bigger sledge hammer of violence. That's his single-minded mentality.

He simply doesn't know any better.

So the USA is going to be seeing some seriously violent years ahead. Ironically being caused by the very president who thinks he has the answers to how to solve these problems.

[William]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

That is very narrow.

But what of the solution?

"The United States of America needs a true "Leader" someone who can inspire the masses to improve their own communities using positive and constructive social incentives. "

Wishful thinking at best.

If such a leader existed, why didn't the system provide it?

Maybe Trump has the right idea but perhaps the wrong method of approach but why should there be violence?

What is your alternative? Assuming you even have one, is it achievable?

[bluethread]

Practically speaking anything the federal government does is going to be heavy handed, broad sweeping and/or ineffectual. That is why I think the constitution limited the powers of the federal government to securing the borders and reconciling conflicts between the states. All of these attempts to micromanage the citizenry using positive or negative incentives have just created more chaos and injustice. That is why I am a localist. The "real issues" for the federal government are securing the borders and reconciling conflicts between the states. All of those other issues are better handled by the people or the states respectively, as the tenth amendment states.

[DanieltheDragon]

[Replying to post 4 by bluethread]

While I agree in some aspects, the reality is different. We do have a bloated federal gov and both sides are to blame. We are not going back to a more limited federal government anytime soon or perhaps for the foreseeable future simply because there is no political will to do so and the younger generations are gravitating to more socialist forms of governance.

To some extent this may explain the why of it but there are other governments that handle a more federalized government more efficiently than we do with less federalization. So big-government can't be the only issue. Perhaps polarization in politics may be a bigger issue that our first President saw coming a mile away.

The case still remains to what our are real priorities, I don't think we really care about protecting American lives. What we really care about is fear and how to not be afraid. We know heart disease, cancer, traffic accidents, gun accidents, murder, and crime are apart of our lives. These issues seem somewhat manageable. We don't expect a terrorist to blow us up. We simply don't want to be afraid of what we don't know.

[Divine Insight]

What is your alternative? Assuming you even have one, is it achievable?

I just offered you the alternative. Is it achievable? Yes, absolutely. Will it be achieved? I have no clue. I cannot predict the long-term future. Can you?

[William]

What is your alternative? Assuming you even have one, is it achievable?

I just offered you the alternative.

Wishful thinking then. Wishing for that special 'Messiah' who will be able to bring the opposites together into one neat smooth functioning on-the-same-page community.

And this is to come from the political sector of said community...

"The United States of America needs a true "Leader" someone who can inspire the masses to improve their own communities using positive and constructive social incentives. "

The problem is and will always be traceable to the systems of disparity which govern human communities.

[bluethread]

[Replying to post 4 by bluethread]

While I agree in some aspects, the reality is different. We do have a bloated federal gov and both sides are to blame. We are not going back to a more limited federal government anytime soon or perhaps for the foreseeable future simply because there is no political will to do so and the younger generations are gravitating to more socialist forms of governance.

To some extent this may explain the why of it but there are other governments that handle a more federalized government more efficiently than we do with less federalization. So big-government can't be the only issue. Perhaps polarization in politics may be a bigger issue that our first President saw coming a mile away.

The case still remains to what our are real priorities, I don't think we really care about protecting American lives. What we really care about is fear and how to not be afraid. We know heart disease, cancer, traffic accidents, gun accidents, murder, and crime are apart of our lives. These issues seem somewhat manageable. We don't expect a terrorist to blow us up. We simply don't want to be afraid of what we don't know.

Polarization is nothing new in these United States. In fact, it is part of the system. That is why we are a federation and not a confederation. Twice in our history, at the constitutional convention and during the civil war, our nation granted the federal government the power to deal with polarization between the states. However, polarization among the citizenry is a state issue. Polarization in the federal government is part of the process and always has been. That is why they separated the power to legislate, the power to enforce and the power of due process into three separate branches.

A spoiled citizenry is no excuse for changing the federal priorities, unless one is concerned about the recent temper tantrums. I believe that is also a local problem. If UC Berkley wants to permit people to set fires and break windows with impunity, I think there are plenty of lawyers to provide a financial incentive to change that policy. Also, reasonable people will send their children somewhere else. Worst case scenario state governments can always bust heads and take down names.

[Plumbus Grumbo]

Terrorism is a real issue, so is poverty, immigration, tax reform, crime, gun safety, traffic safety, education, and many others. The question really becomes what are our priorities with regard to these issues.

For example gang related crime and deaths far outpaces that from terrorism, if protecting American lives was our number 1 priority should we not allocate more resources to reduce gang related violence? What about traffic safety? I would garner if we devoted the same amount of resources to medical research as we do terrorism we would protect many more American lives than we do by combating terrorism.

Why does it seem like there is a gross misappropriation of resources in America?

Do we really want to protect American lives?

Show a child statistics on traffic related deaths and deaths due to cancer in relation to all other threats, and she'll tell you to focus on those two issues primarily.

Jesus got some things right.

[Divine Insight]

What is your alternative? Assuming you even have one, is it achievable?

I just offered you the alternative.

Wishful thinking then. Wishing for that special 'Messiah' who will be able to bring the opposites together into one neat smooth functioning on-the-same-page community.

And this is to come from the political sector of said community...

"The United States of America needs a true "Leader" someone who can inspire the masses to improve their own communities using positive and constructive social incentives. "

The problem is and will always be traceable to the systems of disparity which govern human communities.

And so what's your solution?

At least I offered a solution. And it's most certainly a possible solution. There's nothing preventing a charismatic intelligent leader from coming along. In fact, we were very close to having that with Obama. We've taken a major nose-dive from that now. We've gone from having an extremely intelligent humane leader to now being led by a seriously immature narcissist who thinks the USA is his new personal toy, and who is also paranoid about terrorism and immigration. That can hardly be blamed on any so-called "system of disparity".

So what's your solution?

All, I've seen from you thus far are complaints. No realistic solutions.