1. We Have an Irrationally Inflated National Consciousness
When the government shut down in 1995, I was 13 years old. I have no memory of it. Now, I have my own family, a job, a house, and a car. Yet it’s quite likely that, in another 18 years, I won’t have any memory of this one, either. In practical terms, the shutdown has had zero effect on my life.
This shutdown has demonstrated to me and a whole new generation of Americans how little of a role the federal government actually plays in our day-to-day lives. There is a lot more going on in the world, locally and internationally, than may at first seem. As funny as the Colbert Report and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart may seem, they’re the symptom of an inflated national consciousness that leaves behind our local and global communities.
2. Reinterpreting Political Rhetoric Provides Insight
Measured by the amount of money spent, only 17 percent of the government has actually shut down, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are making scheduled payments on autopilot.
Before the New Deal in the 1930s, the federal government was primarily tasked with just raising an army, defending our borders, and delivering the mail. In fact, all those tasks are still getting done. How then can we call it a government “shutdown”? We should be calling it a “partial shutdown.”
It is also worth noting that this partial shutdown happened because of an issue surrounding a “health care” law. In fact, the “health care” people refer to encompasses a very limited amount of people’s actual health. What people are actually talking about is medical care, nothing more. Eating right, exercising regularly, meditating regularly—these are more accurately described as health care.
3. State Governments Are Like National Governments
Each of the 50 states has its own government and those are running fine. If those shut down, we might have more serious issues. People like to compare the United States to places like Canada, England, or Sweden, but the reality is that, in terms of population, individual states are more comparable to those countries. California is more populous than all of Canada. Even the least populous state, Wyoming, has more people than the European country Luxembourg.
Interestingly as well, it is erroneous to think, “Hey, all of these foreign countries have universal health care, why don’t we?” In fact, the nine most populous nations, including the United States at number three, do not have universal medical care.
Remember, a true comparison is apples to apples, not the United States to Canada or England.
4. China Has Everything to Do With America
When we hear about the horrific human rights violations in China, like the murder of peaceful Falun Gong practitioners and the black market sale of their organs, people might say, “That’s a bummer, but what can we really do about that?”
The Chinese communist regime was very vocal in its frustration over the partial shutdown because it is the biggest holder of U.S. debt. U.S. taxpayers pay the regime $73.9 million per day in interest, according to Politifact.
This is interesting on at least two levels. First, why don’t we just pay off our debt and stop paying so much interest? We can do something about China: We can elect more fiscally responsible leaders, not leaders who promise more things with price tags.
Second, why are we outraged with the mere possibility of racial discrimination by a man in Florida (George Zimmerman) while content with systematic tyranny in China that institutionalizes discrimination against a variety of groups and crushes religious and press freedom? The Chinese communist regime is not a distant cousin living in a different city, he is a deranged housemate and business partner to whom we owe our next paycheck.
Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and president of the Society of Classical Poets.
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