Some People Say Both Sides Are Equally Guilty For The Government Shutdown-- They're Basically Idiots

"Under The Influence" by Nancy Ohanian

Those are the kinds of headlines, at the bottom of this paragraph, that I’m seeing all the time. Dan Crenshaw is a very conservative Texas Republican. He's openly blaming neo-fascist Republicans for the shutdown, not Democrat. Anyone following the lead up to the shut down knows exactly what happened. The GOP is at war with itself and the result is a shutdown. The far right fringe is blaming McCarthy, McCarthy— as well as the mainstream conservatives ins wing districts— are blaming the far right fringe. And yet, on an L.A. NPR station they dug up a couple fossils totally about the death of Dianne Feinstein. One gratuitously mentioned what an insult it is to Feinstein’s hallowed memory that the Democrats and Republicans are so busy fighting with each other that we are probably going to have a government shutdown. If he— who presumably follows politics— thought that, I wonder how many others do as well.

I had a feeling The new YouGov poll for The Economist had asked that. I was right: “If President Biden and the Democrats and Republicans in Congress do not reach an agreement over federal spending in time to avoid a shutdown of the federal government, who do you think will more to blame?”

Among register voters:

• Democrats in Congress- 15%

• Republicans in Congress- 35%

• President Biden- 13%

• Everyone equally- 30%

Apparently, the Democrats aren’t getting the message out effectively enough. Look at those headline again; people are inured to reality. Could this be any clearer? “A band of House conservatives Friday voted down a GOP bill to avoid a government shutdown. The vote marked a significant— and embarrassing— defeat for Speaker Kevin McCarthy as a shutdown this weekend appears increasingly inevitable. The tally was largely expected after a handful of conservatives— more than McCarthy could afford to lose in his narrow majority— lined up against the measure… ‘There are 21 Republicans who just voted to defund the United States military and keep the border open… They need to be called out by name,’ he said. ‘I mean, this is not a Republican shutdown. This is a shutdown– If we don’t get this done soon– that is caused by 21 individual members of the Republican conference,’ Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) said.’ Moderate Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) placed the blame directly on one lawmaker. ‘There’s only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown, and that’s Matt Gaetz. He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan,’ Lawler said.”

How about this for clarity? “It’s a clown show. If you keep running lunatics, you’re going to be in this position.” That was mainstream conservative Mike Lawler and he was talking about his Republican colleagues, people like Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Marjorie Traitor Greene (R-GA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Lauren Boebert (R-CO)… Not Democrats.