The Government Has Been Shut Down for Months
The Government Has Been Shut Down for Months
Today is the day we stop pretending that it’s not.
by David Dayen, Whitney Curry Wimbish
September 30, 2025
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-09-30-government-has-been-shut-down-for-months/Open linkView original on lemmy.blahaj.zone
29 replies
Like, Imagine you had a van. The van has passengers, and you're one of them, but you're way in the back. The driver can't hear you and doesn't care what you want or where you want to go. Then a new driver comes in and takes the van offroad. They drive in the wrong direction, and they keep hitting potholes and pedestrians and shit. Some of the people in the back are hootin and hollerin like it's some awesome roller coaster, and also they hate the pedestrians and like when they are killed. And you're like, please, just stop.
And then the driver threatens to turn the car off.
I mean, yeah, you need the aircon, and it would be nice to be going somewhere, but the driver is definitely not going in the right direction, and the longer he drives, the more damage he does to the van.
Right now the government is worse than shut down. It's actively doing bad things. I'd rather the government start doing good things, but that's not currently an option available to me.
The analogy is brilliant.
But they key players aren't in it for the ride. The bumps, pedestrians, etc. is all just to get the people in the back to get loud. While the van is stopped, the driver and navigators will be yelling in their megaphone how the van stopped because of you, but also the past driver broke it. They'll continue mapping their off-road course and devising how to replace the locks so the driver can't be replaced, and promising to pay people outside the van later to go shoot the pedestrians for now instead.
Meanwhile, it's just getting hotter and the handful of people who were tossing water bottles out the window and other aid to help the pedestrians have also come to a standstill.
MAYBE some of the idiots in the van actually start demanding it move again, but more likely they'll be yelling at you for some reason
I fucking hate this van
There is a van loose in the hospital!
Loved that skit, it was perfect and aged like wine
Well, you can’t piss in the gas tank because that would be DISRUPTIVE and you’re scared about losing your shitty job that you hate- so you’re just going to sit there and take it, right?
Well like just two passengers could easily overtake the driver.
Yep. Shame the car is full of absolute cowards whining about the ride.
I don't think the "bad things" part would actually be shut down. At least not most of it. The entire federal govt doesn't actually just stop.
The military and any federal LEO will remain functioning. This is how they dismantle everything in the federal government except for the parts that keep them protected. No hassle of removing people and replacing them with people who will shut themselves down, like the DoE. Now everything is just shut off. Done.
We don't need aircon. We can fan each other.
I think you're under estimating the amount of terror ice is inflicting on innocent people. There is no solution left that doesn't harm innocents and its a lot easier to keep meals on wheels running without a federal govrnment than it is to break hundreds of wrongfully deported citizens back from foreign prisons, let alone the thousands of immigrants who are also just as innocent as the citizens.
You think a government shutdown would stop ICE thugs from being deployed?
Congress hasn't been able to pass an amendment since the 90s, and even that was mostly theater regarding their own compensation proposed in the 1700s. The last real amendment was passed in 1971 lowering the voting age to 18. It's been almost 60 years. Most Americans don't know what a functional federal legislature within their own country even looks like.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States
https://youtu.be/cdTgKarqTQ0
Are republicans even upset at a government shutdown? Isn’t that what their platform is?
They’re upset only as much as that “upset” is beneficial to their screaming about the librulz
If they can say it's the Lib's fault, and half the country agrees, then they will feign anger.
I've already been living without true rule of law for years. The police don't come when needed and when they do eventually come hours later they make things worse. Might as well try out this anarchy thing.
You vastly underestimate how much the government does.
I'm sure I also underestimate how much evil the government does too.
The United States has been operating on the "concept" of a government since January.
I understood that reference
I feel very much the same way. Again its why I was ok with not shutting it down in spring but am completely fine with it now because literally nothing to lose.
ICE agents won't get paid. That's reason enough to root for the shutdown
So the cool thing about government shutdowns is that all the stuff you think wouldn't be funded like ICE, or the Military, still is. But all the stuff that people rely on like federal services, healthcare, etc, somehow has to shut down.
Now of course, the dems could have changed this anytime they wanted to under Obama or Clinton, with a simple majority vote, basically making government be funded at the previous years levels, but they didn't want to for some reason. I can't imagine why.
ICE is separately funded for the rest of the year. All of the worst parts are already funded. This shuts down the services and benefits for regular people.
Dems should still stand their ground though.
They'll find ways. But it would be great to watch them turn on eachother because they're not getting paid.
Can we do decades plz?