If you’re upset about the government shutdown, I want you to do something that seems like a very alien idea in this Year of our Lord 2018: Take a deep breath and think about why you are mad.
Imagine a world in which there were very real, tangible consequences for both your actions and your inactions. Now imagine that not only were those consequences real, but your bosses could see them playing out in front of their eyes; the consequences for everything that you did (or failed to do) were instantaneous and unfolded to the world in real-time. Now imagine that the only people affected negatively by your actions (or inactions) were those bosses, the very people that had hired you to do your best so that the entire world didn’t catch fire around them. How effective would it be if you blamed someone else for all of the negative effects of your actions, while you suffered absolutely no direct repercussions from the fruits of your labors (or lack thereof)?
That is exactly what is happening in Washington, D.C. over this Christmas holiday. Your elected representatives refused to create a solution to keep the government fully-funded. They knew what the president of the United States required in order for them to get his required signatures, and the United State Senate simply refused to do it. While many so-called leaders in the Democratic Party are throwing accusations at the president about making empty grand gestures, they’re the ones abandoning their sacred duty in order to manufacture a media spectacle. Folks, I simply have to remind you of one simple thing: If they actually cared, they would force the president to veto and then override the veto to keep the government funded.
SPOILER ALERT: They don’t actually care about keeping the government funded.
Senate Democrats had a very clear option on the table: fund border security or shut down the government. They decided to take their ball and go home for the holidays. They didn’t fight until the last minute, working to override the president’s veto. Instead, they decided to act like a small child who is angry about their dirty diaper, demanding to know who defecated in their pants while they were wearing them. Sorry, Chuck. That stinky mess is all you, buddy.
Of course, we can’t sit here and pretend the members of the GOP aren’t derelict in their duties as well. The president had already warned them that he wouldn’t sign another omnibus without wall funding. They didn’t take any action and now they have lost the House like they deserved, to be honest. It seems as if the GOP is completely incapable of actually passing any legislation that veritably furthers the agenda they claim to believe in. It also doesn’t help that Mitch McConnell is simply incapable and/or unwilling to do his job as the Majority Leader of the United States Senate. The simple truth is that he is allowing Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to obstruct President Trump’s agenda rather than actually doing his job. It’s complicated to explain, but the short of it is that they didn’t need 60 Senate votes. If you want to know the details, click here to have the entire complicated (and convoluted) process laid out for you.
The bottom line is this: The government is being shut down because the Democrats want it to be and their ineffectual Republican counterparts are letting them do it. This is the government we deserve, to be quite honest.
