'catch me if you can'

10/20/2013

Unit 2

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/1008/Defying-government-shutdown-national-park-visitors-play-catch-me-if-you-can-video

"'Not only are these closures unnecessary, they run contrary to law.' he [Nick Pinizzotto] said. 'This is 'political theatre' at its very worst.'"

This article talks a lot about differences in this shutdown, and the shutdowns of '95 and '96. The government shut down a lot more monuments and parks than it did in those shut downs. Which raises a very simple question: why are they shutting down things that they didn't shutdown last time. In my opinion there are a couple of theories...

1) This shutdown was worse than previous ones, and we are so far in debt that only the most important expenses could be paid.

2) as the article suggest, the government is doing it out of spite, as a way to show their power, and how much we need government.

Dealing with the first one, it is a valid point. We are extremely far in debt. Now, before Ethan goes on a rant about how the debt we have is not as big as it seems due to several factors, I'm not saying that the debt that we have is unmanageable, because it isn't, it is still possible for us to get out of it. Yet, the fact remains, that we are in debt, and perhaps this is why the government decided to close down more things.

The Second, I think is probably closer to the truth. Politics is a big game. In order to win the game, you/your party needs to have the most power. you gain power by doing things the people approve of, you lose if by doing things against public views. I know this is really basic, but it is what it is. Both Republicans and Democrats want to have the most power, which is what led to this shutdown. But, the government doesn't want the populace to revolt, and start an entirely new government (although that is unlikely to happen), so they showed how necessary government is to having our economy run. Showing, that when they are shutdown, the economy suffers.

So, I think that those who are playing 'catch me if you can' with the government, are only expressing their desire to still have the rights. They don't think government has the right to restrict them from public lands, and frankly agree. The government has no right to stop us from having our rights. I don't agree with the way the protesters went about it, I think they were close to the right track.