In October 2013, A Republican congress chose not to fund government operations and the administration was forced to shut down portions of the federal government, including purposefully chosen departments like the National Park Service. The Democrats won the sound-bite battle, with lots of silly audio of people complaining they couldn’t vacation, and embarrassing video of national monuments cordoned off. The Republicans were suitably chastened, but an odd and inexplicable thing happened in the next election: they won even more seats.
Americans may be slow, and pay no attention to important events, but they clearly didn’t hold a grudge, extending the Republican majority in the House of Representatives by seven seats, and an astounding nine seats in the Senate to hand the Republican party total control of the legislative branch. Was it Failure TheaterTM? Of course. The intent was to defund PPACA (ObamaCare), and the running dog lackeys in the Republican party failed…utterly and completely. But the American people seemed to think that it wasn’t such a bad idea!
Maybe, just maybe, a strong Speaker of The House, with the backing of the conservative coalitions, could try again. But this time take it seriously, with the understanding that the voters will not punish Congress if it makes some sense, and seems to point to a serious goal.
If the government “shutdown” could be extended to the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, it might do some actual good. Closing parks and holding up peoples’ SS checks — as Choom Boy would do — just makes people mad, and hardly slows down the ballooning deficit at all.
Stopping paychecks to the Mocha Messiah, Congress and the various agencies that clutter D.C. might get them off their worthless thieving butts. Or maybe not.
I’m at a stage where just padlocking the entire national government until the terms of those currently in office finally expire strikes me as a real g*dsend for the public. But perhaps that’s just me.
A shutdown is simply politics. The problem is that the Republican party has no political convictions, no philosophical basis, so there is no strategy in their shutdowns….just tactics.