If a government shuts down in the forest and nobody useful is affected, should anyone care?
A government shutdown is like the French going on strike. How can you tell? Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the 2025 closure of government.
Bolder and smarter Republicans would claim complete and total credit.
Republicans must make the case as to why a government shutdown is fantastic. Republicans must successfully explain to Americans why keeping government open is terrible.
Recall the sitcom "Married, With Children" episode during which Peggy Bundy went on strike. She never understood why her husband Al Bundy was unmoved.
At best, Peggy was useless. At worst, she was an annoying and occasionally destructive nuisance. Peggy's strike failed because she forgot the basic rules of shutting down and boycotting work.
A strike has to be from something.
A person or entity must do something before they can decide to stop doing it. The thing that ceases must be consequential and, most importantly, have positive value.
A wastrel going on strike beneficially impacts society.
This gets to the guts of policy. Liberal Democrats believe more and bigger government is good. Conservative Republicans insist government should get smaller and leave people alone.
It's sensible for liberals to want more government.
Government is power, and far too many politicos worship power.
This is why Democrats for decades promised to root out waste, fraud, and abuse even though Democrats are the cause of the waste, fraud, and abuse.
Liberal waste is spending billions of dollars on climate change and other nonsense posing as environmentalism.
Liberals waste money on public schools that dumb down American children exponentially through time. Liberals waste money on numerous failed social programs whose only purpose is to buy votes.
The fraud involves funneling money through shell corporations to avoid laws. Immigration fraud helps Democrats import more future Democrats. Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Environmental, Social, and Governance
(ESG) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) allow useless hustlers to get rich browbeating innocent people into submission.
The abuse is the weaponization of government.
Since 2009, the IRS, EPA and DOJ have all been used by Democratic presidents to target Republicans. The targeting came in varying ugly forms.
The Biden administration bullied corporations into censoring conservative social media content and "debanking" bank accounts held by conservatives.
Public schools taught children America is racist and boys can be girls, and that girls can be boys.
Test scores plummeted and so did love of country.
Under then-President Barack H. Obama, rich liberal billionaires funded Antifa, Occupy, Black Lives Matter (BLM), and other domestic organizations trending toward tactics of intimidation, if not terrorism.
Liberal government abuses crossed the line from social disorder to overt violence.
When attempts to kick former and future President Donald Trump off the ballot failed, liberal district attorneys and attorneys general tried jailing him.
Although those cases fell apart, the left just graduated to hunting conservatives for sport.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R- La., was shot during a congressional baseball game practice. On July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania Trump had his ear blown off. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had his ribs broken - by a neighbor!
Conservative youth influencer Charlie Kirk was murdered, on Sept. 10 of this year in Orem, Utah.
The moment the left gets power anywhere, violence explodes and innocent people die.
Chicago is a war zone, exactly as how big government Democrats want it.
People living in fear are easier to control.
With the government shut down, small businesses can operate without fear of regulators shutting their businesses down. The government shutdown makes it impossible for government to raise taxes, ban guns, or harass religious institutions.
True, there are people who benefit from government.
They are called Democrats.
They receive money and other special government favors in exchange for voting Democratic. The hard truth is that if millions of government workers were immediately fired, government would be improved.
America desperately needs plumbers, electricians, welders, farmers, and other people who do things. There are enough paper pushers pushing paper.
The private sector requires results.
Only in government could non-essential workers receive a paycheck regardless of results.
Government exists for Democrats to receive lifetime guaranteed employment while hardworking Republicans struggle under the weight of Democratic rule-makers and rule-breakers. For most Americans, the best thing government can do is get out of the way and leave us alone.
Social Security checks will still go out. The military will still get paid.
As for everyone else in government, the private sector is hiring. Just be good at something . . . something useful . . . anything that matters.
Learn a trade. Make something.
Build something. Produce something of value.
Help society. No society ever improved by expanding bureaucracy.
The days of Democrats using government as their own political slush fund needs to end now. The case for more and bigger government has been discredited. America's big government expansion has totally and completely failed. Propping up failure is unacceptable.
There are only two legitimate paths forward.
Either drastically shrink government or shut it down altogether and keep it shut down.
Eric Golub is a comedian, author and retired stockbrokerage and oil professional living in Los Angeles. His interests include football, politics, Judaism, the stock market, and Angela Lansbury's "Murder, She Wrote." He has written for the Jewish Journal, The Daily Caller, and Breitbart's Big Hollywood. Read More of Eric Golub's Reports — Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.