Democracy Betrayed

How this current government shutdown betrays our Founding Father’s legacy.

Illustration by David Yang

When French Minister Alexis de Tocqueville toured America, he remarked in his book Democracy in America that “to meddle in the government of society … is the only pleasure that an American knows.” The America he saw in 1831 was one of a well-reasoned and deliberated disagreement, and consisted of a well-informed public that collectively endeavored to push past local and factional differences to make America a better country. Nearly two centuries later, this is no longer the same America, and the government shutdown we’re currently witnessing is emblematic of that.

On October 1, Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to pass the Republican-proposed annual spending bill to keep the government open. This was following intense disagreement regarding the $536 billion proposed cuts to tax credits that would increase the price of health insurance for millions of Americans. As a result, national parks and monuments across the country will be closed, hundreds of thousands of government employees will be furloughed without pay, and millions of government loans or contracts will be delayed. In a highly partisan vote, with all but two democrats voting “no”, and all but one republican voting “yes”, factional disagreement has once again devolved into disfunction.

Democrats view the government shutdown as leverage to advance their agenda on issues like healthcare. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated that “If President Trump and Republicans are finally ready to sit down and get something done in healthcare for American families, Democrats will be there.” 

While Congress remains deadlocked, President Trump has expressed his intention to exploit this “unprecedented opportunity” to layoff federal employees, and cut funding especially for legislation he dislikes. This is an especially dangerous act of executive overreach, and will no doubt face challenges in the courts.

While both parties are at fault, the current events illustrate a more profound failure in the two-party system of governance. There simply is no incentive for cooperation on either side. With the media landscape littered with declamations of hyper-partisan harangues, as well as strict-drawn party lines, politicians will no doubt trade short-term “wins” against rival parties, over the long-term good of the country even if it means working with those across the aisle. This unwillingness to legislate bipartisanly comes at the wellbeing of the American people, not just the strength of our federal government. As James Madison warned in Federalist Paper 10, “the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties.”

Since 1976, the US government has experienced twenty shutdowns, yet the deadlock today takes a different and more pernicious form. This shutdown, unlike ones in the past, is purely partisan. Democrats face intense pressure from constituents to oppose the current administration through gesture politics, while Trump and his MAGA Republicans continue to pursue their agenda in cutting federal functions supported by Democrats. There is a complete lack of discourse and negotiation between the two parties, as both sides exploit the constitutional process for political messaging. 

The partisan fiasco that is the current government begs a truly American question that we seem to ask ourselves all the time, “have things ever been so bad?” Looking at this from a wider historical perspective may offer a slither of hope. People often forget that America is no stranger to civil discord and disagreement. Partisanship was baked into the identity of America right at its founding. Loyalists and Patriots; often from the same family, clashed on the battlefields over the issue of American Independence during the Revolutionary War. Federalists and Anti-Federalists dueled over the passage of the Constitution.

Unfortunately, today’s politics has devolved far from the eloquent deliberations of our founding fathers and into polarizing political gridlock. It may be an exaggeration to say that current events will unfold into another civil war, but a keen historian will perhaps recognize the parallels of rhetoric between the quarrels of today and the fierce disputes during the years prior to Fort Sumter. To find a way out of this shutdown and the political deadlock in general, it requires the collective wisdom of politicians and the American people. 

By Calvin Sun ‘29