Why have the American people allowed the federal gov to accumulate 16 trillion of debt?

Nope. Economic experts, not the quacks they get on Fox "News", will tell you the size of the debt is irrelevant as long as interest payments are not a significant portion of of GDP. We could increase the debt to over $50 trillion and not have trouble.

That means we could almost afford to have Trump as president.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.