Both Sides Wanted This Government Shutdown

0:00You're listening to Newsweek Radio. Irreverent news talk and opinion without agenda. with your host, Jesse Edwards. Today's top trending headlines at Newsweek.com. Links are in the descriptions depending on where you're listening or viewing over on YouTube. That's at Newsweek Radio on YouTube. Like us and subscribe at Newsweek Radio on YouTube. Here we go. Government shutdown enters day one as Trump threatens a clear out. The U.S. entered its first day of a federal government shutdown today after senators failed to pass a stopgap funding bill before the midnight deadline. Federal agencies are now kickstarting their shutdown contingency plans, including the scaling back of services and the furloughing of thousands of staff until Democrats and Republicans can find a path forward.

0:46Well, if the federal government is shut down, then should we be paying any taxes right now? Right. I mean, is the IRS shutting down? Because that would be a welcome silver lining. Actually, they've got an emergency funding thing to keep the lights on for the next five days. Last time this happened, the IRS was shut down for just over a month and it took them over a year to recover. And if you're just going to print the money anyway, why do we have to play this silly game of paying taxes in the first place? Just tax the Federal Reserve directly and quit taxing us all to death. I know that's a broad oversimplification.

1:20You economists can stand down. I just say these things to make a point. And of course, Trump is blaming Democrats and Democrats are blaming Trump. When I think it's clear that both sides secretly wanted this shutdown to happen. just so they can use it as a political weapon to bash each other over the head with. But you know, that's only until one of them jumps at the first chance to cut a deal and act like the hero that got the country moving again. Does that make sense to any of you out there? Never let a good crisis go to waste and manufacture one if needed, I guess. Of course, we don't really want a shutdown, even if some of us are salivating at the fantasy of it all.

1:55Don't kink shame. But just watch out for anybody trying to pin this on the left or the right because both sides are absolutely terrible here, like everywhere else. The right is dominated by the orange man baby dictator from hell, while the left acts like gender, race, and identity politics are the answer for everything. The silent middle majority is more silent than ever, unfortunately, which is why I think it's important now more than ever to not only jump on the both-sidesism bandwagon, but to help define it with the voice I've been developing here at Newsweek. Do not let anybody tell you that both-sidesism in American politics is any sort of false equivalency.

2:31When the national discourse has melted down into its most embarrassing level of petty troglodyte tribalist bullshit, ooga booga, we're all acting like a bunch of dumb animals in this Planet of the Apes scenario. I prefer Lord of the Flies myself. And no, they're not quite the same thing, but both Planet of the Apes and Lord of the Flies. Explore what happens when civilization breaks down and human or near-human beings revert to more primal instincts. And you've got every right to be disgusted with both sides now more than ever, which is why it's important for us both sidesers to unite and grow.

3:05We don't care if you're left, center, right, LGBTQIA +, black, white, brown, polka-dotted, or purple. Let's redefine what the big tent is again. I'm asking people to entirely step out of this false construct that we've created and built up around us for a moment, if only as an exercise so we can examine what's actually happened to us humans first in this terrifying, brave new world that we find ourselves living in. I don't know about you, but I do often fantasize about a new way of living that could open up like a new country within a country. And there's got to be a better word for that than revolution.

3:38Not a call to arms, but a call for all of us to lay down our weapons of identity politics. I guess one step closer to this idea is the concept you hear a lot of young activists talking about, which is a national divorce between the left and the right divide. Now, as a concept, I've got to admit that it's at least fascinating, but it also starts to sound like the precursor to civil war. And in some ways, the divorce seems to have already happened years ago. If you want to zoom way out, I could say that September 11th marked the beginning of the end of this so-called marriage. Because from my perspective, that's when tribalism in America went supernova and the nation turned against itself when it came time to decide how to react.

4:17And in that sense, as a chain reaction of events, the impact of those terrorist attacks are still very much being felt today. While it's easy to look back on pre-9-11 years with rose-colored nostalgia glasses, the us versus them, with us or against us, eye for an eye brand of toxic politics was virtually non-existent. When our representatives reluctantly worked together because politics had not yet been weaponized in North America yet anyway. Not only in Washington, D.C., but around water coolers up and down Main Street, USA as well. Then we saw the rise of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, which were virtually two sides of the same coin almost parroting each other as they marched down the streets shouting similar slogans into megaphones.

4:58Yes, I've always found it fascinating how fascists and communists all look the same when they're goose-stepping down the boulevard. Toss in social media going mainstream 20 years ago and we didn't stand a chance. And look what each side evolved into. Instead of uniting against unseen powers with all of the world's information, now at our fingertips we became divided even further, digging in and entrenched in a way that produced nothing but toxic identity politics on both sides, paving the way for Trump to waltz into the Oval Office twice. I don't blame Trump for being the big, dumb animal that he is to a lot of us.

5:33I blame the left for enabling him to do whatever he wants without consequences. They're like clueless parents watching their child throw a full-blown temper tantrum in the middle of Walmart and not having a single clue about what to do about it. Look, I've said it many times before, and I'll say it a million times again if needed. If you don't want people like Donald Trump running your country, then you have got to abandon and torch your personal identity politics going forward. If you don't want goons like Donald Trump to keep winning, you're going to need to advance the dialogue beyond what makes you special as an individual, because this isn't open mic night, and you should probably pay attention to where your self-centered approach has led us all.

6:11Also, if you don't want people like Donald Trump in charge for the next 30 years, you You'd better start finding people who don't look and sound like walking, talking spreadsheets when covering policy. I'm not saying you need to come out on stage with a chainsaw to get your point across, but at least, you know, Barack Obama had some personality and a pulse. Who do they have now? The slick car salesman Gavin Newsom and the crazy little communist AOC? You know, somebody needs to give Hakeem Jeffries an entire pot of coffee. People shouldn't operate heavy machinery or drive a car when that man is speaking.

6:40You could make a gacked-out meth head drowsy, for crying out loud. But back to this idea of the national divorce for just a minute, but from a healthier approach, maybe. Like the Vatican in Rome, or the village's retirement community in Florida. We could establish a movement of, by, and for the people to help offset the government social media complex overreach that exploits us all as data points and their twisted algorithms that have infected every corner of our lives and minds. No, I am not talking about the sovereign citizen movement. But we are talking about the separation of church and state because our humanity is our temple, and our rights as individuals come before the state as truly free living beings.

7:19And it's time to redefine what freedom means in this brave new world. We're free because we say that we're free. It's not dependent on any government benefit or piece of legislation. Our rights are inherent in the fact that we were born as sovereign beings and are non-negotiable. Government can list them and protect them, but our rights are not theirs to give or take away. And while I realize that might sound extreme on the surface, this is in fact the heart of the American psyche, to be clear. And when we say that our inalienable rights were given to us by our creator, we should act like we mean it.

7:52And we don't need a national divorce. That probably already happened years ago. We just keep going back and forth every four years over which party is going to sleep on the couch. It's time to move on and out from all of that. I'm not saying start a third party or abandon your political ideals or even your identity politics. I'm just asking that everyone leave their identity politics at the door before we enter the sacred dojo of public discourse. Think of it as taking off your shoes as a sign of respect. A safe space, if you will, where you're not your skin color or your gender or your religion or your disability.

8:25refuse to let these issues that are important and relevant to you at the individual level be used as a tool to divide and pit us against each other on the collective level, which is what's happening here. Look at people for who they truly are as individuals before society brands us all with their algorithms of compartmentalization, homogenization, and other words ending in T-I-O-N. We don't need revolution. We need evolution of thoughts cascading down waterfalls of creative alternatives, because that's what the information age promised us. But instead, all we got was more consternation because we were never taught how to interpret the information, only how to read it.

9:01So let the idiots on Capitol Hill and in the White House keep turning on and off the lights with these government shutdowns so they can keep blaming each other when the lights are off and giving themselves credit when they inevitably come back on. After all, who better to save us from the perils of big government than big government? Makes total sense to me. No, it's time to call their bluff and just pretend that this government shutdown is more like a vacation. Vacation away from a big dumb bloated government ruled by big dumb bloated government officials. Yeah, watch Trump and company keep this thing going indefinitely.

9:32I wouldn't put it past them, would you? So let's see how this game of chicken plays out. If the outcome is as bad as the left says that it's going to be, then the right won't recover from it in the voting booth. On the other hand, if the sky doesn't fall from the heavens, people might start to learn what we can and can't live without. It's just a thought. Be sure to follow us over on YouTube. It's at Newsweek Radio. And until we can do it again, I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye-bye. Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project.