this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
260 points (99.6% liked)

politics

25944 readers
2778 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
outrageousmatter@lemmy.world
aidan@lemmy.world
jordanlund@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
Theonetheycall1845@lemmy.world
JuBe@lemmy.world
Lasherz12@lemmy.world
260
The Government Has Been Shut Down for Months (prospect.org)
submitted 6 days ago by florencia@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/politics@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Government Has Been Shut Down for Months

Today is the day we stop pretending that it’s not.

by David Dayen, Whitney Curry Wimbish

September 30, 2025

top 27 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 97 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Like, Imagine you had a van. The van has passengers, and you're one of them, but you're way in the back. The driver can't hear you and doesn't care what you want or where you want to go. Then a new driver comes in and takes the van offroad. They drive in the wrong direction, and they keep hitting potholes and pedestrians and shit. Some of the people in the back are hootin and hollerin like it's some awesome roller coaster, and also they hate the pedestrians and like when they are killed. And you're like, please, just stop.

And then the driver threatens to turn the car off.

I mean, yeah, you need the aircon, and it would be nice to be going somewhere, but the driver is definitely not going in the right direction, and the longer he drives, the more damage he does to the van.

Right now the government is worse than shut down. It's actively doing bad things. I'd rather the government start doing good things, but that's not currently an option available to me.

[–] BossDj@piefed.social 32 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

The analogy is brilliant.

But they key players aren't in it for the ride. The bumps, pedestrians, etc. is all just to get the people in the back to get loud. While the van is stopped, the driver and navigators will be yelling in their megaphone how the van stopped because of you, but also the past driver broke it. They'll continue mapping their off-road course and devising how to replace the locks so the driver can't be replaced, and promising to pay people outside the van later to go shoot the pedestrians for now instead.

Meanwhile, it's just getting hotter and the handful of people who were tossing water bottles out the window and other aid to help the pedestrians have also come to a standstill.

MAYBE some of the idiots in the van actually start demanding it move again, but more likely they'll be yelling at you for some reason

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I fucking hate this van

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

There is a van loose in the hospital!

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Loved that skit, it was perfect and aged like wine

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well, you can’t piss in the gas tank because that would be DISRUPTIVE and you’re scared about losing your shitty job that you hate- so you’re just going to sit there and take it, right?

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well like just two passengers could easily overtake the driver.

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 0 points 5 days ago

Yep. Shame the car is full of absolute cowards whining about the ride.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't think the "bad things" part would actually be shut down. At least not most of it. The entire federal govt doesn't actually just stop.

[–] SillyDude@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 days ago

The military and any federal LEO will remain functioning. This is how they dismantle everything in the federal government except for the parts that keep them protected. No hassle of removing people and replacing them with people who will shut themselves down, like the DoE. Now everything is just shut off. Done.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 6 days ago

We don't need aircon. We can fan each other.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Congress hasn't been able to pass an amendment since the 90s, and even that was mostly theater regarding their own compensation proposed in the 1700s. The last real amendment was passed in 1971 lowering the voting age to 18. It's been almost 60 years. Most Americans don't know what a functional federal legislature within their own country even looks like.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 22 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Are republicans even upset at a government shutdown? Isn’t that what their platform is?

[–] socphoenix@midwest.social 15 points 6 days ago

They’re upset only as much as that “upset” is beneficial to their screaming about the librulz

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 8 points 6 days ago

If they can say it's the Lib's fault, and half the country agrees, then they will feign anger.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I've already been living without true rule of law for years. The police don't come when needed and when they do eventually come hours later they make things worse. Might as well try out this anarchy thing.

[–] Ironfist79@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You vastly underestimate how much the government does.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 1 points 5 days ago

I'm sure I also underestimate how much evil the government does too.

[–] TheseusNow@lemmy.zip 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The United States has been operating on the "concept" of a government since January.

[–] lando55@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago

I understood that reference

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I feel very much the same way. Again its why I was ok with not shutting it down in spring but am completely fine with it now because literally nothing to lose.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 6 points 6 days ago (3 children)

ICE agents won't get paid. That's reason enough to root for the shutdown

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

So the cool thing about government shutdowns is that all the stuff you think wouldn't be funded like ICE, or the Military, still is. But all the stuff that people rely on like federal services, healthcare, etc, somehow has to shut down.

Now of course, the dems could have changed this anytime they wanted to under Obama or Clinton, with a simple majority vote, basically making government be funded at the previous years levels, but they didn't want to for some reason. I can't imagine why.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 2 points 5 days ago

ICE is separately funded for the rest of the year. All of the worst parts are already funded. This shuts down the services and benefits for regular people.

Dems should still stand their ground though.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

They'll find ways. But it would be great to watch them turn on eachother because they're not getting paid.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 6 days ago

Can we do decades plz?