Shutting Down the Government Now is Different

The shutdown last fall—an attempt to avoid suffering and allow people to keep their healthcare—was different than many reckless and harmful ones in the past over relatively minor budget disputes.

Today, we are dealing with a rogue government that has destroyed many beneficial aspects of our Federal government designed to make our lives better. Now, we are watching a federal government fund and normalize violent, unaccountable actions against people on U.S. soil. ICE’s actions recently are the epitome of the destruction of the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness guaranteed to us. And the destructive actions are ramping up.

To compromise now, to agree to fund this government without addressing the root abuses at the heart of this crisis, is to give political cover and cash to departments that have repeatedly violated civil liberties with little accountability. This is why many activists say they don’t want “another cent” to go to Homeland Security with their expanded powers and aggressive tactics which have cost American lives and eroded trust between communities and the government.

The people marching in the street don’t want to see another cent go to DHS—a department that got far too much in that one big ugly bill passed last summer. (And the vote for that bill should be hung around every Repulican’s neck in these midterm elections.) Right now, the Washington Democrats are once again not reading the prevailing mood, not understand the zeitgeist of this moment.

This administration is not backing down; the removal of Bovino from Minneapolis was a feint and now they are doubling down. It’s part of the distraction they are using while they strip us of our voting rights and although the greedy plunderer in chief to enrich himself.

Funding injustice is a choice. Refusing to do so is one too.