Another Congress, another presidency, another shutdown, another spending-bill intervention. A couple of weeks, a couple of days. The increasingly familiar scenarios vary. Another day at the dysfunctional office. So much for the “shining city upon a hill.” Legislation by ultimatum.
We now have a budget deal; the government stays fully open for at least, uh, three weeks. Nothing, in effect, has changed. More tarnish for Brand America. We can’t keep governing like this.
“Shut Up” not “Shutdown” would be the better directive. That should have been the operative phrase heard around Washington this week–and for the preceding countdown weeks and months. As in, put away the partisan megaphones, abandon the base pandering and posturing, doff the brinksmanship party hats and take one for functioning–not frustrating–democracy. Do the right thing, not the self-serving thing.
Preening for media attention and political advantage shouldn’t be a viable–indeed, all too predictable–option, when the only relevant game in town has to be keeping the federal government fully operational. And not just most of the time.
Imagine, having to say that!
This isn’t politics, even of the swampy sort. This is legislative negligence of epic proportion, an anti-American badge of disloyalty, and a deadline dagger to meaningful democracy. This periodic perversion of principle should not be part of Congressional culture or updated American exceptionalism. Life, liberty and the pursuit of furloughs.
However, there is this. As happenstance would have it, this most recent, DACA-driven shutdown-crucible has come on the watch of “The Great Negotiator.” The avatar of the artifice of the deal. What a time to make America great again and force feed Congress into a compromise that isn’t seen as anybody’s sellout or surrender. As if. It’s like serving caviar with plastic spoons. Capitol Hill isn’t Mar-a-Lago. And deal-making isn’t done on Twitter.
Here’s a quote for context.
“I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed, and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president should be blamed. If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one who has to get people together.” Yeah. And that, of course, was Trump back in 2011 when we had a “birther” president.
Now there will be a few weeks before the House retackles the immigration issue, and we see what a Mitch McConnell “pledge” looks like. We could surely use a president with artful negotiating skills, wonk-like retention of details, laser-like focus on the big picture and respect from all parties. And who do we have to “get people together”? Worst than President “Jell-O,” to paraphrase Chuck Schumer. More like a pyromaniac in a field of mid-term-fearing strawmen.