They Win Either Way

I've been thinking about the ridiculous stunt pulled by House Republican'ts a lot lately. To any sane person, we realize they just blew off their own foot with their own gun. But it's deeper than that, much deeper I think, and we need to be very wary of the maneuver.

Here's how it could go down: If half of the government can incense an entire group of people - say, young liberals who just get fed up so easily and quit when they can't win because they're used to short-term rewards - then that half inherently gets more votes next election time. This is because that half has the more curmudgeonly older generation who is largely ignorant of how the world has changed between their time and ours.

And that's what the shutdown works to do. It makes a lot of young, upstart kids feel like the government simply isn't functional and makes them decide to just not vote - that'll show 'em, right?! The problem with this reasoning is that not voting is not helpful in any way; it will just lead to the people who are causing the actual governmental dysfunctionality getting more power, and grinding it to a further halt, and then eventually reversing the progress our nation has made over the past several years.

Instead, young people, I implore you: Don't not vote! Yes, the government feels dysfunctional, but that's mostly because one half of it doesn't have empathy. It is an entire group of psychopaths and political aholes. I'm not saying that every Republican is one of those, but every Republican who toes their party's ridiculous line must surely be! If you look at the leaders, they all are (it's easy to tell if you are familiar with the Psychopath Test or the DSM).

Anyway, I'll climb down off my soapbox now. But if you value your country and what they do for you and for the rest of the world, you can never, in good conscience, vote Republican.