Jerome Marot
Well-known member
I hope it is ok to discuss a non-photographic subject. I could ask that question in a politically oriented forum, but I am afraid that the answers would be too much tainted by the kind of political audience. This forum has several members from the US and I am simply seeking the opinion of people living there.
Government shutdowns are peculiar to the USA. The rest of the world, I think, sees these shutdowns with bewilderment. I still remember the first one I experienced in 2013 to find out that, indeed, the website from Nasa was shut down. Of course, there were earlier shutdowns, but I did not notice them as the world was less connected then.
The present shutdown breaks records in duration, with no end in sight. As far as I can understand what for me are foreign politics, democrats cannot give in on the border wall financing without losing face and a part of their electorate. On the other side, President Trump appears to be content to put the blame on Congress for as long as it takes.
I may be mistaken, but it appears to me that President Trump thinks that, the longer the shutdown, the more he wins. Please consider that the financing of the border wall was not a question asked to Congress as long as the majority was republican, but only arose when the majority changed. Therefore it appears, at least to me, that it is a political move to put the democrats in a dead end.
A further though is that, since President Reagan, republicans have consistently voiced the opinion that the economy needed less government and less civil servants. A shutdown achieves that purpose. President Trump reportedly boasted that the democrats let him achieve the reductions in public service that the republican electorate always wanted.
The problem here, and that is actually my question, is that I do not see any way out of the crisis. So, what is the opinion of people living in the USA? How is the crisis going to end?
Government shutdowns are peculiar to the USA. The rest of the world, I think, sees these shutdowns with bewilderment. I still remember the first one I experienced in 2013 to find out that, indeed, the website from Nasa was shut down. Of course, there were earlier shutdowns, but I did not notice them as the world was less connected then.
The present shutdown breaks records in duration, with no end in sight. As far as I can understand what for me are foreign politics, democrats cannot give in on the border wall financing without losing face and a part of their electorate. On the other side, President Trump appears to be content to put the blame on Congress for as long as it takes.
I may be mistaken, but it appears to me that President Trump thinks that, the longer the shutdown, the more he wins. Please consider that the financing of the border wall was not a question asked to Congress as long as the majority was republican, but only arose when the majority changed. Therefore it appears, at least to me, that it is a political move to put the democrats in a dead end.
A further though is that, since President Reagan, republicans have consistently voiced the opinion that the economy needed less government and less civil servants. A shutdown achieves that purpose. President Trump reportedly boasted that the democrats let him achieve the reductions in public service that the republican electorate always wanted.
The problem here, and that is actually my question, is that I do not see any way out of the crisis. So, what is the opinion of people living in the USA? How is the crisis going to end?