Starting December 22 at midnight EST and continuing for 35 days, the government shutdown made history under President Donald Trump. According to The Washington Post, President Trump has demanded more than $5 billion for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and the Democrats stand firm in not funding it.
America has seen a growth in political polarization, meaning a sharp divide between the two political parties, for the past several decades, but that isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. Bryan McQuide, political science professor at Grand View, explained how the political polarization that the U.S. is seeing right now is just another cycle in history. The U.S. has gone through cycles like this before. The 1800s, for example, were very polarized, and then the U.S. went into a more bipartisanship period.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, bipartisanship is defined as “involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise.” All of these things are far from how the U.S. operates now as Democrats and Republicans have a hard time reaching a consensus. This trend has come and gone since the Civil War.
McQuide explained that the U.S. was polarized during the Civil War before having an era of bipartisanship. Similarly, the U.S. went through bipartisanship again during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Following that same pattern, the U.S. grew more polarized in the ’70s and ’80s, up to the current crisis now.
The 2018-2019 government shutdown under Trump marks the 21st time the federal government has shut down since 1976, when Congress enacted the modern-day budget process. The 2018-2019 shutdown is different due to its duration and effect on American society.
“Twenty-seven percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans see the other party as a threat to the nation’s well-being,” said Nate Cohn with New York Times. “Consistent liberals and consistent conservatives, those who hold nearly uniform liberal or conservative beliefs, are even more alarmed: 50 percent of consistent liberals and 66 percent of consistent conservatives see the other party as a threat to the nation.”
Other countries don’t typically experience polarization like the U.S. does. The U.S. is a bipartisan country, where the majority of politics is based around Democrats and Republicans. Germany, by contrast, has two major parties, The Social Democratic Party of Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union.
However, those two major parties often team up with one of the other five political parties to make the majority. For example, the Christian Social Union is the sister party to the Christin Democratic Union. These two parties often team up to pass new bills.
McQuide explained how it is completely up to either U.S. party or the president to offer a deal and make a compromise with the other. If the Democrats offered Trump a deal that he couldn’t refuse, or vice versa, then the shutdown could have been avoided.
“This goes back to changes to the budget process that were made in the 1970s that made it really necessary for the president and Congress to work together in certain ways,” said
Ron Elving on NPR’s All Things Considered program. “And here’s a news flash. Sometimes they don’t.”
McQuide shared an analogy that explains what the intense polarization of the U.S. looks like.
“If you think about the old 1950s-1960s chicken game where two cars race at each other as fast as they can to see who blinks first,” McQuide said, “that is exactly what this is. Trump is betting that the Democrats blink first and the Democrats are betting that Trump will blink first, but everybody loses.”
McQuide explained that in the past, government shutdowns usually resulted in intense pressure on politicians from the public. The constant high pressure is what caused either of the parties to give in and make a compromise.
When the government shuts down, all non-essential government agencies shut down with it. However, all essential government agencies must stay open and work without pay. For example, the USDA, essential to Iowa because of farming, is forced to shut down.
On a national level, there are even bigger issues such as airport security. TSA agents still have to work even though they aren’t being paid.
“The Transportation Security Administration is making a plea for 250 people to bolster its workforce of backup officers, the latest sign the agency is straining under the pressure of the shutdown,” said Rene Marsh with CNN.
On January 15, TSA released a statement on its website stating that it experienced unscheduled absences at a national rate of 6.8 percent compared to 2.5 percent one year ago.
McQuide said that in December, Trump vetoed the Democrats’ bill due to insufficient funds for the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
If Congress does not pass a continuing resolution or a budget for a specific agency or department for the following year, the agency or department that is affected doesn’t get funding. This causes that specific agency or department to shut down.
McQuide explained that the government didn’t pass the majority of the bills by the start of the fiscal year in Congress, which is October 1, so they used continuing resolution, which means they fund the unpassed bills at the same level from previous year until December 15.
“This is a partial (shutdown) in the sense that what happened is Congress was able to pass a few of the appropriation bills,” McQuide said.
Appropriation bills are annual decisions made by Congress that determine how the federal government spends some of its money. Appropriation bills range from national defense to food safety to education to federal employees’ salaries. However, appropriation bills exclude mandatory spending such as Social Security and Medicare.
The Washington Post reported that about 800,000 government employees worked without pay or were forced to take an unpaid leave.
“They’re going to have to use their credit cards, depend on family (and) friends.” McQuide said. “Some businesses are offering free meals to government employees affected by the shutdown. They are depending on the generosity of community organizations to help them out.”
Brown Dog Bakery in Ankeny, Iowa, provided government workers with free pet food and supplies for pets during the shutdown. According to a report on WHO TV, people were able to call the store at 515-964-7177 or message them on Facebook to get cat litter, food, treats and other supplies.
Bidwell Riverside Center, located in Des Moines, supplies food and hygiene items to about 4,500 people per month. During the shutdown, Bidwell said people affected by the shutdown could receive these items every seven days, according to WHO.
According to The Washington Post, JPMorgan estimates the U.S. economy lost more than $1.5 billion a week because of the shutdown, a fraction of the $20 trillion economy. National Parks were also affected.
“Now, this time of the year is less likely that you’re going to be affected by that because people don’t really want to visit Yellowstone in the middle of winter, but if this were to drag into the summer, people have planned family vacations in the national parks months in advance,” McQuide said.
As of January 25, 2019, Trump and Democratic leaders reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks. After the historic 35-day shutdown, this three-week reopening allowed government workers to be paid while the branches of Congress continue to work out their differences.
The three-week reopening bill does not include money to build a wall, and the president has stated that if a fair deal that includes funding for the wall is not made before February 15, the government will either shut down again or he will declare a state of emergency.
The moment the president declares a national emergency, he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority. Emergency powers are meant to give the government a temporary boost until the emergency passes or there is time to change the law through normal legislative processes.
“At key points in American history, presidents have cited inherent Constitutional powers when taking drastic actions that were not authorized or, in some cases, were explicitly prohibited by Congress,” said Elizabeth Goitein in an article from The Atlantic.
Should the government go back into a shutdown, McQuide does not believe there will be a veto override. In fact, McQuide thinks that the pressure has been getting to the White House.
“The public anger is really building up,” McQuide said. “There’s going to be more and more pressure on Trump and the Democrats to make a deal. The public perception of this is getting much more negative.”
The 2019 shutdown might also play a major role in the upcoming 2020 elections.
“That’s the other factor that’s coming into play here; how much is this going to hurt the Republicans? This is going to make great material in the campaign trail,” McQuide said. “I mean look at the Republicans; (they) shut down the government for weeks because they wanted to build an expensive border wall.”
According to McQuide, both party bases are being extreme and ultimately hurting the citizens of the U.S.
“The Democrats and Trump are ignoring the fact that the rest of us are losing,” McQuide said.