It is the soul-sliming pettiness of the thing, the "shutdown."
A paid vacation for a million bureaucrats has consequences, some of them probably bad, some perhaps good, but most as unremarkable as that bland tan paint you slap on the wall because you can't decide on a real color.
Beige is too neutral for fun television, so you have to create drama.
"No, goddammit, you may not walk up to the Vietnam wall and shed a tear for your dad who died there because the Tea Party closed America."
"And stop whining about all the black dot.gov sites. Can you fools not see that permitting access to historical data bought and paid for years ago corrupts the nation?"
When a national administration spends hugely to erect steel barriers long the sidewalks meandering through open-air memorials, you know you are being governed by snit-fits. The teevee loves it. So do grandstanding politicians from the left, right, and muddle.
The same occurs when the world's greatest wire service defines the impact by caterwauling with a Kansas farmer who doesn't know what to do because he isn't getting the latest breathless crop-yield predictions from the USDA. Should he go short or long on wheat futures? He doesn't know because his vacuum head has no mental resources other than the federal government's guess about how much grain will be grown in America, Argentina, Greece, and Tierra del Fuego.
It has gone beyond the silliness of the absent park tour guide -- the kid in the Smokey hat in front of Lincoln's statue, explaining that cuddly ol' Abe freed the slaves.
It has become the dangerous confluence of a leader's snake-handling pentecostal oratory wedded to power on a national stage populated by chanting citizenoids massed in front of the Department of Treasure edifice. "Whadda we want? MORE. When do we want it. "NOW." And forevermore.
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Making all necessary allowances for "studies," does this help explain it?
2 comments:
I acknowledge the barriers are about as effective as the border wall and congressman running out to pull them back so the WWII vets can gain access makes for good photo ops but it distracts from the real issue here. Are we going to let a fringe element take over the government?
The middle class has been taxed to death and are entitled to be upset. They can no longer carry the load of our obligations. Instead of taxing the rich we borrow the needed money. Not taxing the rich is the cause of massive deficits. Denying the poor food stamps will not ever balance the budget. sorry for the long comment.
Please. Never apologise for a long comment. We would argue a thing or two, but we probably agree it is not a simple set of issues.
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