Government Shutdown

Love this article right here, I've interacted with people who had these misconceptions lately about the government shut down, and the recent "protests" that the Tea Party People have been doing. A few common statements I hear is that.

" Shut down Washington, all crooks..."
" Maybe this will save us from budget problems."
" Finally somebody is standing up..."

These really vague statements that just give in to the very easy anti-government hate train that people ride, and this of course, has merit. US politicians usually do not represent the interests of the majority, except for a select few, Like Bernie Sanders and John Olver, but this DC shutdown is not something that is revolutionary, in fact it is counter-revolutionary. The truth the matter is that:

People in poverty who ask for government assistance got their benefits delayed, and to quote Bill Maher, those conservatives really showed how to stop that poor kid from getting his inhaler, and government workers, like Park Rangers and the EPA (!) who were on indefinite furlough.

Politicians, and select members of the staff, continued to get paid, the DOD and Pentagon still marched on to the their beat of their own drum.

So when I hear people give an off-handed praise to these far-right wingers who wish that environmental laws and public education would be abolished, it is pretty damn disgusting.

"Shut down Washington?" No this did not shut down Washington, it shut down people who are not considered "important" in the grand scheme of things.

"Budget Problems." Au contraire, this just costed the taxpayers more money, as the limbo of the budget bill in the House, just caused the government to perpetrate more debt, as it still wasted money on everything else but Social and Environmental programs.

And the people standing up, are probably not your friends. This kind of conservative backlash is just something that is truly mind boggling. In the United States, we get these sympathizers of the rich, people who believe in the rhetoric perpetrated out by Conservatives since the 1980s, where trickledown economics and giving tax breaks to the wealthy were sold to many Americans as a sound idea.  Now they see communists like Obama and Clinton,  sarcasm here because in reality, they agree so many issues, and get riled up by a piece of legislature that helps people get health care. The article linked above shows a more detailed look into race and class relationships in the United States, as Farmers and Urban workers have always butt heads, at least culturally. Bernie you are so right.