The Shutdown -

A Citizen's Reflection

Reading HCR’s letter last night makes me feel like I don’t know anything at all. I didn’t think that Dems holding the line against Republicans was cruel. Dems are trying to extend the ACA premium tax credits. My own son, who has health issues, needs his ACA. It affects our family directly. Noble Cause.

I felt, like many, that the Dems are finally showing a spine. We are winning. For a fact, holding the line impacted Nov. 4th Dem victories, as it showed Trump’s unbridled cruelty and clear apathy toward any American’s well being, including his base.

Among other lines, the one that got me in HCR’s letter last night was this:

“President Donald J. Trump did not want the shutdown to end this way. He was trying to use the pain he was inflicting on the American people to force Republican senators to end the filibuster and pass a series of measures that would essentially have made him a dictator.”

So as much as I thought Democrats were kind of being radical in their impasse, we are still playing by the rules of governance with a man who uses the rules to his own advantage. We all know he tried to starve people by going to the courts to stop SNAP benefits. He yelled at air traffic controllers yesterday -- people who are literally preventing deaths in our skies and were not getting paid to do their jobs!

So, pain and suffering of our people was the point, was the weapon, his leverage - our leverage?

So, goodness gracious, I guess the story continues. I guess the fight continues, and I also guess I will continue to learn, continue to question, learn, question, do what I can, where and when I can - and hope that his popularity continues to look like thousands (millions) of us booing him at a football stadium and him cringing under the roar.