ANARCHY! Take to the streets! Smash windows! Raid pharmacies!
No? We still have a government?
Well, maybe we aren’t in anarchy just yet, but we have shut down. Unfortunately, it appears as though once again a radical few has been allowed to hijack our government and disrupt our economy to further their own agenda.
The government has been shuttered before in our lifetimes–for a few days in the winter of 1995 during Bill Clinton’s administration. I was only three at the time and a few of our incoming freshmen hadn’t even emerged into the world yet, so I’d hazard to guess that few on campus can remember it. I guess this is a milestone, then. Our first shutdown! Does anyone know how to make it an event on my Timeline? Sorry–let’s get back on track.
So far, this shut down thing isn’t a whole lot of fun. The National Parks and passport offices are all shuttered, and it looks like the stock market has taken a significant downturn. I’m not sure that “shut down” is the perfect word for what is happening right now because it seems as though we do still have a government.
On second thought, however,I guess calling it an “inconvenient and indefinite partial holiday” kind of minimizes the myriad of ways in which it negatively effects our lives an the lives of those around us.
Looking past all of the major inconveniences, the most frustrating thing about this whole shutdown debacle is that it didn’t have to happen. The notion that a small radical segment of a political party can completely derail the United States government just to win a few political points is ridiculous.
I don’t believe for a second that the majority of Republicans in the House wanted the shutdown to occur. Rather, many of these individuals were coerced into letting it happen because we’ve allowed a vital segment of our political system–the Republican party–become radicalized by a group of anti-democratic maniacs with a highly specific and highly misunderstood agenda. Any Republican who even suggests compromise is instantly made a target and risks losing their seat in their next primary.
This is not the way our system is designed to work, and regardless of your political affiliation, this militant Tea Party group should desperately alarm you. Just look at what’s going on right now.
Speaking of the Tea Party, I firmly believe that the government is shut down right now primarily because Ted Cruz, the egomaniacal, masochistic senator from Texas, desperately wants to be the President of the United States in three years.
A bit of advice, Mr. Cruz: there have certainly been several individuals in the Oval Office with less-than-pristine character, but you should definitely try to withhold from pissing off the entire nation before you get elected.
Everyone else in Washington: can we please get this monster sewn back together and move on?
