It may strike some as strange to state a partial government shutdown is a good problem to have.  Such a statement would take most aback, especially when today’s American society has been lulled in a stupor on focusing on the here and now.  This stupor has led to complacency, apathy and a lost sense of history.  It is only when looking at the shutdown from much larger and far broader historical perspective, that an unprejudiced and bipartisan clarity be attained.  Today, the Obama Administration has singly drawn our attention to the “Republican shutdown.”  Their strategy is that of the President’s; “blame the Right” and the people, now lacking the ability to self assess and self educate, will blindly follow – and they have. 

While watching the news covering the partial shutdown this weekend, things fell into perspective.  Eric Cantor emerged from the chambers and in his opening sentence declared the Democrats were at fault.  Shortly thereafter, Nancy Pelosi emerged and immediately blamed the Republicans.  More of the same nonsense.  It was not until President Obama spoke that truth rang with the aforementioned clarity.  He stated that the government was in a shutdown because of the House Republicans’ stubbornness.  In the same sentence and in the same breath, the President stated that he would not sit with Republicans and the shutdown would remain in effect until the Republicans gave him the exact budget that he wanted with no attached stipulations.  He insisted that he would not settle for anything less than his specific demands and again blamed the Republicans for the shutdown.  Here is where Americans miss, have never fully understood, or have forgotten the obvious; America is a Constitutional Republic and is thus specifically designed to prevent such lineal and direct acquiescence of imperial polity.

While the public may in fact blame Republicans for the shutdown, they fail to understand that it is House of Representatives’ constitutional responsibility to assure the powers of government remain dispersed and are not solely and exclusively under the authority of any singular individual named as President of the United States.  What President Obama wants is to increase the debt ceiling by 1 trillion dollars with no stipulations while the House wishes to apply stipulations to the debt ceiling increase.  Because the House did not bow down to President Obama’s attempt at imperial polity and upheld the values that founded American political influences, we now have a shutdown.  When reflecting back on the President’s words concerning the Republican’s role in the shutdown, it is the demand of the Obama Administration that the House acquiesces to both the legislative and fiscal intent of the President.  Again, America was created as a Constitutional Republic to permanently escape such tyranny.

We must remember why the Mighty Pine Tree once adorned the revolutionary Don’t Tread on Me flag.  The British government enacted regulation stipulating no citizen could cut down tall and straight trees, even if the tree were on their private property.  The government then cut down the tallest and straightest of trees for their naval fleet whether the tree was located on privately held or public land.  Being that people purchased property largely for the quality of trees contained within the land, revolution was enacted to dispel imperial polity and attain freedom from government overreach and excessive taxation.  More recently, President Obama spoke to this during our Independence holiday.  The President stated that he felt the Revolution of our forefathers was wrong and government should possess the ability to tax as it sees fit and not in accordance with constitutional authority or the people’s desires.  The historical context of the government shutdown is equally compelling.

The people have been fed very simplistic and sophomoric excuses for the shutdown.  Responsible are Republicans, right-wing extremists and even the racist intentions of not wanting the nation’s first Black President to have his way.  These are offered forth to shift the focus away from the 40-year history of government shutdowns.  There have been 17 shutdowns prior to the current, 15 of these shutdowns were at the hands of Democrats, not Republicans.  In fact, George W. Bush is the only president to not have served as President during a shutdown with a divided congressional body in the last 40 years.  On the short term, Americans only see the more recent absence of a shutdown.  Now that one has occurred, it is easy to sway Americans with disillusioned understandings of government and history to blame on the Party upholding the intent of a Constitutional Republic in order to thwart the reemergence of the governmental tyranny that drove the creation of America.  To give the President the budget he wants in the manner in which he wants it with no stipulations, solely because it is his demand, defies the role of the House of Representatives where budgetary assent is required and ultimate fiscal responsibility is bestowed under “trias politica,” or separation of power.  As much as President Obama admires Britain’s parliamentary power that prevents their upper chamber’s dissent from the ruling or winning party’s manifesto – we are not in Britain, and for good reason we have contrived a Constitutional Republic to ensure specific disseminations of power, which block such attempts at absolute rule.  Moreover, President Obama has tried to demand the House relinquish its constitutionally ascribed authority directly to the Office of the President of the United States.  The House, acting under the rule of law refused to relinquish this authority to the President.  The public do not see these basic, underlying separations for their historical significance and how they our vital to America today.

So yes, the shutdown is a good problem to have in that it prevents absolute power.  President Obama’s followers and supporters find fault only in who the President has directed them to find fault in.  The blame is placed upon the shoulders of the Republicans.  The Right, in their eyes, is therefore responsible for what has been closed due to the shutdown.  The failing here is the overlooked fact is the shutdown is partial - not complete.  This means the Obama Administration decides what remains open, what is closed, what is funded and what funding is stopped.

It was not the Republicans who decided death benefits would not be paid to the families of fallen military members serving abroad, it was the Obama Administration.  It was not the Republicans who decided to block people from stopping to view Mount Rushmore because “it is a National Monument and the government is closed” and therefore those driving by cannot pause to witness it, it was the Obama Administration.  It was not the Republicans who have forced people from their own homes because they live in a National Park, it was the Obama Administration.  It was not the Republicans who have blocked access to the Florida Bay to prevent fishermen from accessing 1,100 square miles of open ocean due to the shutdown while maintaining staff to police the ban, again it was the Obama Administration.  These choices are best described by a Biscayne Bay Park Service Ranger who stated, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.” 

These actions are by selective choice, not by Republican force or any other entity besides that of the Obama Administration, which is largely “acting out” an Obama led temper tantrum at the people’s expense.  The Left refuses to acknowledge their choices in what aspects of government have been shutdown, but are quick to blame the other while fully and willfully denying the Obama Administration’s motives against a Constitutional Republic as it demands ever increasing control and power over the nation in ways that are beyond the historic understanding of the average American. 

Therefore, President Obama’s greatest power lies in the bias nature and intellectual weakness demonstrated by his support base.  Today, they would support the House of Representatives losing its fiscal power so that he, as President can have unmitigated and unconstitutional fiscal control.  However, should this exact control they want for Obama fall in the hands of Republicans – it is only then that they would see error in what is happening today and why separation of powers are important to the American way of life.