I haven't really commented on the shutdown of the Federal government directly. There's so much talk of it, so much of which is completely superficial, that it almost seems to be a waste of electrons to do it.
Once all the rhetoric is boiled away, there are some things that are serious, in various manners, that are evident however. One is that the base that elected Donald Trump, which consists principally of blue collar workers and their immediate descendants, wants something done about immigration, which frankly is grossly over any sensible limit, and right now. Trump cannot ignore that and if he does, he will not only loose the 2020 election, but the GOP will loose his voters who will go on to be a permanently disgruntled class, the results of which nobody knows. The wall is purely a symbol of that as it is not seriously believed by very many that it would be effective, but to that base it's a symbol of resolve. It may be a policing waste of money in the views of most people, but then a lot of symbolic items of resolve are. He really can't yield.
The Democrats can yield but right now they won't, as the shutdown is a symbol for them of an a Presidency they despise. In terms of disgust, therefore, two New Yorkers, Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump, and one displaced East Coaster, Nancy Pelosi, have become the symbols of a broken government all the way around, as well as being symbols of a Baby Boom generation that simply won't yield power to anyone younger.
On not yielding power, Ruth Bader Ginsberg has not made it to Supreme Court Oral Arguments this week. Nobody really knows what this means, but there's very good reason to believe that a figure who has in the past never missed arguments would only be doing so now if she absolutely can't. RBG is a very elderly woman and never had the appearance of one in good health, even if she was clearly always a person of vigorous minds. Almost nobody is speaking what's now on their mind, but what that is, is pretty clear. Somewhere in the departments of the Administration people are dusting off the barely shelved lists of potential Supreme Court nominees to see which one should be made next.
On shutdowns, one thing of notable interest, one way or another, is the degree to which the legislature of the State of Wyoming has been very quiet. Going to the last election the Republicans fielded, in the primaries, two candidates who would have thrown Federal employees in jail for doing their jobs and a third who would have taken over their work in a slow motion fashion, most likely. The voters rejected all of that nonsense and so far the legislature hasn't been reviving any of it, perhaps finally getting the message.
But at the same time what's been notable is that those who seriously maintain such positions haven't been saying much. With the Federal government partially shut down in the state, you'd think they'd be crying for Wyoming to take over the Federal government's operations until the Federal government goes back to work. Nope. Not a word on that.
There's been no suggestion that Wyoming take over administering the parks. People worried about Federal oil and gas leasing grinding to a halt (the Feds sent those guys back to work), but nobody suggested that maybe the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission could step in.
Of course, all of that would be quite unrealistic. But that's the point. When push comes to shove, even the pushers know that.
Which won't stop, I'm sure, the shutdown being used as an argument for reviving this nonsense when the shutdown is over. Put to the test, people choose not to take it. Which doesn't stop them from complaining about pop quizzes later.
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