The Government Shutdown: The Wheels are Coming Off
October 1, 2025
Exiting the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what it gave us. “A republic,” he said, “if you can keep it.”
For eight months Trump’s regime has stressed it gravely. This government shutdown may be where the wheels really come off.
Giving Democrats an excruciating dilemma. Senate Minority Leader Schumer caught hell in March for capitulating to avoid a shutdown. Now he’s switched to resistance. To stand against a travesty of governance feels righteous. Yet nobody has ever benefited politically from a shutdown; and, as David Brooks has pointed out, a shutdown now actually hands this regime added power. To fulfill their wrecking dreams.
Past shutdowns were a kind of bizarre charade: after each, furloughed federal workers were paid for the work they couldn’t do because the government couldn’t pay them! But this time looks different, with regime nihilists thirsting to kiss those public servants goodbye altogether. Trump warns that Democrats risk permanent destruction of programs they’re keen on. Uncharacteristically for Trump, it may be true.
Those programs, including health-related, are ones that most benefit the “forgotten” working class Americans whose back Trump swore he had. While sticking a knife there. This shutdown will twist it. Maybe Democrats should just let it happen; maybe people will finally see it.
Meantime Trump accuses Democrats of wanting “gold plated” health benefits for illegal immigrants. Could a lie be more disgusting? Trump’s standard operating procedure — making our civic discourse a sick farce. (Undocumented residents have no access to such government programs — though pay a lot of taxes funding them.)
And after a meeting with Democratic leaders, where he refused to negotiate seriously, Trump posted a fake video mocking them. A President of the United States did this. I thought the Constitution requires that a president be at least 35 years old. Maybe it should say 10.
How does this end? The two sides seem girded for mortal combat. Democrats can’t just cave now; and governmental emasculation is what Trumpists actually want. Unfazed by how the public sees this. If their cultist voters could excuse January 6, perhaps they’ll excuse anything. But how long can this insanity continue?
This is ultimately about power. Of course, politics always is; but in a democracy, power is supposed to be for achieving policy ends. Whereas in today’s America it’s becoming an existential war. As The Economist’s Lexington columnist recently described, the stakes keep rising. Many Republicans literally believe themselves battling Satanic evil. And, as they go about silencing and intimidating opposing viewpoints, and weaponizing the machinery of “justice” to persecute political foes, they must fear retaliation should power change hands. Winning and keeping power becomes everything. Thus the gerrymandering abuses, and so much more; they’ll stop at nothing.
One government thing, at least, is not shutting down: the military. Its generals summoned Tuesday and told they’re being repurposed to fight enemies within. The word “war” above may not be mere metaphor.