The Shutdown

Fanatticman has been in semi-retirement for some time now but he feels compelled to bloviate
about the current partial shutdown of the Federal Government.

Watching the news a few evenings ago, a piece aired about the closure of the bathrooms at the Lincoln Memorial. Several Porta-Johns had been lined up near the roadway which circles this
hallowed place. Long lines of tourists visiting their Nation's Capital were seen at these toilets.
Some of them were interviewed about their experience and the reviews were not happy in the least.
Volunteer bikers were seen removing trash from the trash receptacles in order to prevent it from overflowing into the street and adjacent national war memorials and parkland.

Now, all the while this situation is occurring in DC, our vaunted lawmakers are nowhere to be seen.
They are enjoying their Christmas turkeys with family and friends and guzzling down their holiday
wassail, while glad handing their donors and constituents back in Possum Trot.
Back in DC however, thousands of Federal employees, including those from the National Park Service who are dedicated to preserving the Lincoln Memorial and the hundreds of special
places in this country, aka, our national heritage, are at home without pay wondering when
they will be able to return and attend to their mission.

So Fanatticman has theorized that the party leadership system in both houses of Congress and in both
parties need to carry most of the blame for this dismal situation. If members were allowed to vote
with their conscience and their own value system, instead of being whipped by their leadership
into extreme positions on both sides, compromise might prevail as in days of yore. Alas this is not the case. Red lines are drawn by both sides which they dare not cross or they will lose funding from the party and federal appropriations to their district or state may mysteriously begin to dwindle.

So fellow disaffected citizens, will there be intelligent compromise in order to resolve this and future
intractable issues, or will these unproductive stalemates continue?

I am afraid that visitors will never be assured of a comfortable sit-down while all the shit goes down
in Washington; and the nation will remain in a state of constipation as the good will  and common sense of congressional members continues to get whipped aside to feed the extremist positions on both sides.