It isn't much talked about in polite circles, but in my view the real underlying problem in American society is religion. Not the absence of, mind you, but I believe that any religious belief system makes the believer almost inherently less thoughtful, less caring, and (oddly) less spiritual.
By its very nature when you subscribe to religious dogma, you are ruling out interventions with the real world. Like, the search for eternal truth. I believe in an absolute truth. You simply can't reconcile the parallel universe we live in today where major religions co-exist in an uneasy alliance while pretending politely that each other's members are probably not going to hell.
And (at least for "mainstream" religions) if you are religious, you are elevating your own beliefs and principles above those of your fellow citizens, which is of course the crux of the problem when it comes to fundamentalist beliefs like banning abortion, outlawing gay marriage (and better yet gayness in general), or blowing up things. All just varying manifestations of the same twisted belief system. That is, that your views supersede your neighbors.
Religion, as Marx observed, is "the opiate of the masses". It has taken more than a lifetime to see the wisdom of that simple declaration. Nothing in history has done more to destroy mankind than our genetic predisposition to believe in a higher power. From the Christian crusades to the modern day fundamentalist Muslim bombers, it is all roughly the same thing.
The only total mystery to me is, why fundamentalist Muslims and Evangelicals do not align themselves into one political force. They both have remarkably similar agendas. They should be naturally aligned, and I believe someday they will.
If I sound a little angry my apologies. I am sure there are some beautiful spiritual belief systems out there. I heard the Dali Lama speak once and was very impressed with the speaker himself, if not the belief system. I do not mean to offend anyone who genuine believes in a god, for whatever reason.
But religion is the root of the problem. From the disastrous presidency to its lesser interference on our lives in countless ways, the substitution of worship for logic is an incredibly divisive and destructive force, that needs to be called out on every level and eventually defeated as an ideology.
When I was seven or eight and found out there was no Santa Claus, it was painful at first. But a little self reflection showed that the truth was much more beautiful. The actual truth was that my parents had bought the presents and wrapped them so carefully. It was at one level more satisfying than a bunch of flying reindeer and a fat man.
Its like that with religion. I hope now that the religious right is defeated (however momentarily) large numbers of people will see how destructive religion is and take baby steps to the light of knowledge, the scientific search for all truths, and the better care of our fellow man.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled program...