John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Have you ever noticed how politicians and the wealthy tend to treat inquiries about complex issues as simple questions leading to simplistic answers?

They often begin to respond to an interviewer’s question with the caveat that “it’s complicated.” Then, they ignore their caution and proceed to give a non-answer or a very simple response, leaving out multiple factors inherent in the issue.

For example, the government is involved in an entanglement of medical services including medical care for the impoverished, medical research, efforts to overcome epidemics and pandemics and programs to eradicate life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Rather than researching and clarifying the relationships among these services and evaluating the effectiveness and necessity of these services, the political go-to is money. Simply, “take money away from these services, including Medicaid,” and ignore any harmful effects it may cause.

As another example, President Donald Trump seeks to solve the decades of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory and the resulting ongoing conflict in Gaza by simply suggesting it is a financial issue. He has argued that peace can be accomplished by simply transforming Gaza into a resort for the wealthy without the presence of Palestinians.

Another complex reality is that of the LGBTQ+ community. The challenge here is to seek ways to understand, support and recognize that each of different gender expressions as part of the human family. The simplistic response to the LGBTQ+ reality is to reject gender reality and instead view humanity as binary: two sexes, male and female. The natural complexities of human beings are simply ignored.

Other issues subject to a similar simplistic approach are abortion and the superiority of the United States. The simple answer for the former is legislation to ban abortion, and for the latter, the simple answer is acquiring more and more wealth at the expense of other nations.

Relying upon simple answers result in ever-more complex problems, confusion and trouble. It is simple to say, for example, that it’s time to deport undocumented immigrants and refugees who have a criminal record. Concerning state police working with ICE, Gov. Kelly Ayotte declared that “criminals who are in our country illegally and pose a danger should be apprehended and removed.” However, deep into the report covered by the Monitor, we read that Ayotte agrees with the policy of local law enforcement to be “authorized to transport immigrants without legal status to ICE detention centers, including those who are not accused of a crime.”

It is simple to make traffic stops, raid workplaces and enter churches to scoop up people suspected to have entered the country illegally. It’s not so simple to sort out the “criminals” from people who have jobs, pay their taxes and contribute to society. It’s not so simple to decide when and where sanctuary may be declared or if there are conditions where religious settings are safe from the invasion of police or ICE. It’s not so simple to attempt to change the status of “birthright” children or to choose to deport people waiting to receive green cards, people who have lived in the country for many years contributing to the economy and to social capital and refugees fleeing from death and persecution in their country of origin.

To avoid this complexity, it is simpler to just hold all of these people for deportation.

It’s time to remind political leaders that the old adage, “Keep It Simple Stupid,” is no longer the wisdom for our time. People have the combined intelligence, experience, wisdom and will to comprehend, discuss, debate and solve intricate problems together.

It’s time to expect our government and its political leaders to do the difficult work. The greatness of the United States is not simply to rely on wealth, on cutting taxes, on the ability to bully international rivals or on the power to coerce loyalty to the president or political party.

The greatness of the U.S. is in the potential of its people, many from all parts of the world, contributing their customs, their working-class wisdom, their college-educated knowledge, their religious faiths, their histories and their heritages. When everyone is welcome at the table, it is possible for a jumble of random puzzle pieces to be put together to show a solution that simply no single piece could reveal.

Politicians, citizens, rich and poor, come to the table. The challenge is complicated.