When Reason Goes Out the Window

I find it curious that people will debate the nature of God, with one side saying it is irrelevant as He doesn't exist and the other sure they can pin down the nature, the complexity, of a Being so far beyond the comprehension of any human being (as my human reason tells me must be the case), yet they never seem to question how weird HUMAN nature is. Our country, which has produced in its relatively short history the best blueprint for human freedom that has ever existed in the world-- the U.S. Constitution-- is being riven by a wave of emotion-- on both sides of the political spectrum-- that appears to be throwing away not only reason but the essence of our freedom that millions of our forefathers died for in multiple wars. And most of us don't even seem to see it! Hitler came to power in part due to Dr. Goebbels, a true evil genius. Goebbels knew if you told people little lies, they wouldn't believe you but if you told them a BIG LIE, they would and the more outrageous the better. What is appalling is not that he told the people of the most advanced country the world had ever seen at the time (Germany led in science, medicine, technology, the arts, etc.) that Jews ate gentile children, the homosexuals could 'turn' heterosexuals, that Gypsies and Slavs were subhuman beasts, but that millions of people believed it! This dehumanizing of the other is nothing new: the early Christians were fed to the lions,; later Christians in the crusades massacred Muslims, Jews and other Christians; the glory of the French Revolution devolved into the Reign of Terror; perhaps a million women (and some men) were burned as witches in Europe and even in the U.S. at Salem, ALL killed based on unproven allegations. Atheist regimes have been no better: Stalin's show trials; Mao's purges in the Great Leap Forward; the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. Sadly it seems many--most?-Americans don't appreciate that our Constitution and Bill of Rights changed history by presuming innocence UNTIL proven guilty BEYOND a reasonable doubt, something new in history (under Napoleonic law you are presumed guilty until and unless you can prove your innocence, which means trying to prove a negative when the only evidence against you is an accusation.) How far this will go in America I don't know, but history and human nature don't make me optimistic. If we go on like this, the innocent will suffer, either punished for crimes they did not do or not believed for victimization they suffered.