What I’d Like to See Happen with the Government Shutdown
on October 7, 2013 at 12:01 am
So here’s the thing: no matter what political stripe you have, be it Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Anarchist or just one of those stubborn independents that defy labels, we all pay taxes. So the question is, if we continue to pay taxes, what the Hell are we paying them for if the government is supposedly “shutdown”? This is, of course, mostly a lie.
Saying the government is shutdown is kind of like saying the CVS is shut down when only the candy aisles are closed. (They have a lot of candy at CVS. I think the “C” in CVS must stand for candy.) Anyhow, like a partially closed CVS, you immediately notice the candy aisle being closed because it’s right up front and chances are if you went in to a CVS, you probably wanted some candy. If you needed some important medicine, the pharmacy is open.
So like the CVS, the government only shut down the really visible “unimportant” parts: monuments, national parks, NASA and, of course, medicine for poor people without their own lobbying firm. This tells us one thing, the people “in charge” only shutdown the stuff they don’t care about. And yeah, a few defense contractors aren’t getting SOME of their money, but that’s only because there are multiple factions of defense contracts and their allies in Congress. So really, it’s fight between various corporations and their political tools. Meanwhile, the same said contractors are taking advantage of the headlines to fire thousands of workers, while the wars and the surveillance grinds on.
It’s a mess. And these people work for us?
This is what I’d like to see happen: If you’re blaming either Republicans or Democrats, that’s just hype from cable TV news. What the Congress is supposed to do is work for you. As Jefferson once said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” And when I say “fear”, I don’t mean in the physical sense. I mean that they should be fearful about losing their jobs and their political careers.
Consequently, I’d like to see the shutdown drag on. And while the hype on cable TV news gets louder and louder, people start to tune it out and start finding new ways to fund and take care of people. The essential medical care is taken care of by some fed up millionaires and billionaires who, up until now, were content to sit on the sidelines. But now, they suddenly emerge. They spend the money and make the changes.
Cable TV news, in its stupidity, covers it. Not because it’s news or that they care, but because they attempt to spin it as another reason the government shut down is bad. But people don’t see it that way. They see it and start to wonder why the Hell are we paying these clowns in Washington to cut off this money? The government is not collapsing and everyone that’s politically connected seem to continue to get rich.
Then, in 2014 during the election, there’s a shift. Not from R to D or the other way around, but a real shift towards independent voters. So fed up are people with Congress that they’ll vote for anyone else other than the big two. Of course, the major two parties conspire to shut down any possible dissent. The third parties could, at best, be spoilers, but the major two will have none it.
They come down hard on it. Too hard.
Unlike the many previous times, the response is way too heavy handed. Maybe there’s one election where the votes are so disputed, it drags through the court system for a few years. A Democrat and a Republican caught together, rigging the election. The media can help itself. The ratings are too sweet, but over the next two years it eats away at the two party system.
Constituents, even the loyal ones, demand changes. Switchboards light up, but Congress tries to ignore it. With the blame game exposed as a fake dog and pony show, politicians begin to panic. They start voting for bills that people actually want. The vote to defund the NSA reemerges, but this time passes by a wide enough margin that it can’t be stopped. The lame duck Obama presidency takes one last grab for glory by going to the diplomatic route. With encouraging poll numbers from the recent talks with Iran, Obama finally pulls the troops out.
Defense contractors are in a panic, but the politicians up for re-election in 2016 are in an even bigger panic. After watching some of their colleagues get hammered in 2014, they switch tactics and find new allies. There are massive cuts at the Pentagon and while this doesn’t immediately solve the problem, this returns us to the level of semi-economic sanity not seen since Bill Clinton was in office.
Anyhow, that’s what I’d like to see happen.
