Here's a growing list of things being shut down by the current tenant of the Spitehouse.. But the Spitehouse cooks and ushers and the military golf courses where the President plays, well, they are all essential federal services.
To switch metaphors, we are being treated like the bad doggie who has to have his nose rubbed in it.
I'm starting to think that it isn't a matter of we're all in this mess we're in together because of our unserious Democrats and our silly Republicans. I'm starting to suspect that maybe this mess we're in is because it's THEM against US.
I'm starting to suspect that shutting the government down all the way, not just 17% of it, could all maybe even work out.
But if we didn't have a federal government, the FBI wouldn't come if you called 911. Oh, wait, they already don't.
If we dint have the postal service, we wouldn't be able to get all our junk mail. Oh, wait, we can depend on email spam for that.
If we dint have the federal bank and the U.S. Mint, we would have to use debit and credit cards instead of cash. Oh, wait.
What if we didn't have the Department of Education, trying to make all state schools to look alike? Betcha home schooling could become an attractive alternative if the states failed to supply quality education. Oh, wait. And in the absence of student loans, colleges and universities might have to find pricing schemes based on demonstrative career value to students, instead of diversity and athletic showmanship, and the long con that is current higher education.
If we dint have the IRS, who could we pay our taxes to, under threat of penalties, for essential services, like Whitehouse ushers and cooks and cleaning staff? We'd have to depend on other tax nibblers, like states, counties, and municipalities. Oh, wait. We already do.
If we dint have the border patrol, who would prevent terrorists and criminals from walking in and preying on citizens? Oh, wait. That part of government is already shut down and the federal government says that states like Arizona can't step into the breach and patrol their own borders, even if they want to. Guess we are meant to welcome bomb throwers and drug dealers to their new home. Have a nice day.
For that matter, as to drugs, if we didn't have the DEA who would fight the war on drugs, you know, the attempted military and judicial interdiction on substances that a very many citizens routinely buy for their own entertainment, at prices way too high because of the interdiction activities of the federal and collaborating state governments? Like tobacco and booze.
And if we dint have the Department of Transportation and EPA, who would see to it that our gasoline supply was made artificially expensive with a heavy tax burden, used to require us to adulterate the fuel with 10% alcohol? Because polar bears, and because shut up. Who would manage things so that our miles per gallon is reduced due to the lesser caloric efficiency of the adulteration of the fuel with alcohol, while correspondingly reducing the availability of corn, which people around the world like to eat because it is cheap and nutritious. That is, cheap until we begin burning the stuff as fuel after processing the living daylights out of it, using fuel to do so, to turn it into alcohol to put into gasoline.
I'll observe that if a person feels antagonistic towards the current federal government, (Oops I typed "feral government by mistake so I fixed it.) that doesn't require one to be against all government, wherever and whenever. We could still have states even if the federal government were to be radically and brutally trimmed back or eliminated. And maybe the states could provide essential government services more effectively than the federal government. Or at least, no worse. For myself, I don't like the federal government much more than I don't like the state of Oregon. And while there is certainly an excessive portion of governmental boneheadery here, where would you rather live, Oregon with mountains and rivers and such, or the District of Columbia with, well, the District of Columbia?
Much of the basic structure of the modern United States of America was already in place by the time Woodrow Wilson went to the White House and began to progressivize government. There wasn't an interstate expressway system, but we have that now, because of Eisenhower. We also have much better communications and computing abilities but that largely is independent or even in spite of government activity, once DARPA turned the internet loose. And the federal government has grown awesomely since Woodrow Wilson, and especially, since Lyndon Johnson. (I'm told Harry Truman used to go for evening walks all around D.C., at night, instead of remaining secure in a White House surrounded by men with guns and ear pieces, as presidents are now)
So maybe the Spitehouse's attempt to rub out noses in it by closing some federal properties down will make us much more aware that those in government think that the free citizens of the United States of America must be coerced and managed and duped and bribed into behaving with deference to the wants, dreams, desires and beliefs in singing bullfrogs and unicorns of the political class and their fellow travelers. (I used the expression "fellow travelers" on purpose, and people of a certain age will know what I mean.)
Maybe the events of our current government shutdown could inspire many of us to begin to speculate about our relationship to our government -- there, I said it. "our government." And maybe there are those in our current government, from top to bottom, who could use a little dose of unemployment. Just as so many real Americans, not government Americans, are enduring presently.
I mean, think about it.
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