The government is shut down. And nobody cares. The essential and non-essential employees are obviously not so essential. Maybe, neither is the government.
COLORADO SPRINGS: Almost two weeks into the latest government shutdown and a Rasmussen poll reports that 2% of likely voters think it hasn’t started yet and another 11% think it hasn’t lasted as long as it has. Yet 83% are well aware of it and know that it is almost two weeks on.
Rasmussen’s conclusion: the shutdown is a “nothingburger.”
Democrats want to turn every shutdown into an existential crisis but this kind of brinksmanship is becoming a routine political tactic. In the battle of Trump versus the Temper Tantrums, who is going to win the latest round in the Battle of the Shutdown? So far, advantage Trump.
As usual, the battle is not being fought on Capitol Hill but rather in the court of public opinion. The side that perceives it is getting blamed for the stalemate will cave first. Usually, that’s Republicans. And Obama understood this.
During the 2013 shutdown, he closed the national parks. He withheld death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers returning from Afghanistan. Seniors were warned that their social security checks might not come (they did) and the military was briefed that they might not be paid (they were). From the article Punishing the wrong people:
“The president has some latitude in the way he administers the shutdown.
