More Thoughts on the Federal Government Shutdown

Since there's no end in sight for the current government shutdown, and both sides are giving indications that no progress is being made and no short-term end is likely, I have a few additional thoughts on the current state of political gridlock.

As I said before, the system should really be more resilient against this sort of "using the American people as leverage" political fighting strategy; the current state of sorta absurd. Beyond that, though, in the context of Trump's Russian ties being investigated, I think the Republicans in Congress are doing a substantial disservice to their own political careers (not to mention the damage to the country) by not tossing aside solidarity with Trump, and his wall-funding tantrum. In my opinion, the Republicans in the Senate should pass a basic budget and dare Trump to veto it, and they should override him if he does.

After all, Trump himself gave them an "opening" to do so, so to speak, when he raised the possibility of using emergency powers to steal the money to fund the wall anyway. Notwithstanding the clear would-be unconstitutional nature of such a move, the Senate Republicans can credibly claim that they were passing a budget for the overall good of the country on-balance, and put the onus on Trump to follow through on this alternative plan to fund his wall, if he thinks he can sustain the justification in the face of the inevitable House inquiry into abuse of his position. It's not like there's that much downside for Trump in that scenario anyway; it's very likely the House will be investigating him soon anyway, and challenging everything else he does in the next two years, not to mention the collusion subtext which will be attached to his actions.

So, in summary, it's well time for the remaining Republicans in Congress to cut ties with Trump, and leave him on an island with his considerable baggage, so to speak. That's my opinion, anyway.