Who will you blame for the government shutdown?

[mianfei]

According to the New York Times article ‘What the Shutdown Says About the Future of the Democrats’ (link here) the Republican Party since the 1994 “Republican Revolution” has become a “movement party” dedicated to conservative purity. The article fails to grasp the radical 1980s social changes like the sexual revolution that pushed the GOP to this direction, nor that members of these radical social movements generally never vote(d) because their preferences were too far to the left of the Democrats and their financial backers.

Nonetheless, I will vote for the Republicans given the control they have over the Presidency and Congress.

What article author Michael Tomasky fears is that this shutdown will make the Democratic Party – as the Republicans have become since the 1990s – a wholly ideological party that leaves the political centre empty. In Tomasky’s view more frequent political shutdowns could lead to third-party movements from the centre, and potentially to (not specifically stated) radical changes ot the Constitution if partisan gridlock cannot be avoided.