The world, and most people in this country, are distracted by war in Libya, the broader Middle East Revolution, and the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown in Japan. Meanwhile, back in DC, those responsible for determining government policy and programs are deadlocked. The Republicans and Democrats, the House and the Senate, have given themselves three weeks to resolve disputes over how much to spend and where to spend it, when there is no incentive to come to any agreement at all.
The Republicans, or at least the Tea Party faction within the party, are not bluffing. They are quite willing to shut down the government rather than give in to Democratic appeals for reasonableness in making cuts. I daresay there are some in the Tea Party who would just as soon the federal government disappear entirely, leaving the states as the only real governments. Then the South could truly rise again.
From my principled point of view, even though I am a Democrat, and think that the Republicans, especially the Tea Party Republicans, are stupid and irresponsible, to put it mildly, there is no reason the Republican majority should give in to the Democrats. They have the majority in the House, and should be able to enact their vision of what the majority of the country wants--even if, from my minority point of view, this may result in the collapse, again, of the world economy.
Democrats are complacent. They blissfully go around thinking that this time will be no different, and some jerry rigged compromise will save the day. I am reminded of the complacency about the risks in the financial markets described by Michael Lewis in The Big Short. No one was worried because failure never happens. Similarly everyone seems to be confident that we will again just muddle through, that the threats to shut down the government will never happen.
Of course, the Democrats have always been complacent: they think it more important to be fair than to win, and so they lose much if not most of the time. They have been losing, even with Democratic Presidents, for the last 35 years (see Winner Take All Politics by Hacker and Pierson).
It is not the Democrats or the Republicans that are at fault: it is the system we have within which we operate. The system is what has allowed the House, even the majority in the House, to be irresponsible. Why act responsibly when there is always the Senate, and the President, and ultimately the Supreme Court, to ensure "responsibility". The Senate, an unrepresentative, undisciplined, minority ruled body, is able to block or at least corrupt the decisions of a representative, disciplined, majority ruled body.
At this point most people just throw up their hands and say this is the system we have, and we have to work within the system. Trying to change the system is too difficult and not worth it. I agree that we have to work within the system, but I believe the system can be changed, working within the system. The first step, again, is to reduce the power of the Senate. Giving responsibility to the House will make them responsible.