"Why is this park closed?" "Because you closed it, Congressman."
Gary Hart
The Last Act in Alternative-Reality Land
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If you live in a vacuum-packed world of talk radio, right-wing dominated town halls, and campaigns financed by anti-government billionaires, and if that's the only Kool-Aid you drink, it must be a shock when you confront the real world. "Why is this park closed?" "Because you closed it, Congressman."
If the "big government" you oppose is not the one that creates and operates revered national monuments, but is one that provides food stamps, unemployment compensation, breakfasts for poor school children, and rent subsidies and you can't actually say that's what you are against, because you believe, wrongly, that it's mostly people with darker skins who benefit, it makes real-world politics difficult to deal with.
So what's a Congressman operating in a closed-circuit vacuum, who only hears his own echoes 24/7, to do? What does he do when he finds out that his gerrymandered solid red district dominated by a minority is neither the real America nor the real world? You intimidate your Speaker and you threaten -- or more likely have others threaten -- your wavering, moderate colleagues with a primary campaign by a fire-breathing, alternative-reality version of yourself.
There is only one way three or four dozen alternative-reality Congresspersons can shut down the United States government: fear. Fear of what? Fear of not being a Congressperson. Fear of losing your job. Fear of not having a staff to look after your every wish. Fear of not being cheered at the next town meeting composed of people you're already afraid of. Most of all, fear of returning to everyday life back home. But, of course, there is always the lucrative alternative of lobbying, where you can stay in Washington, go to all the parties and fundraisers, write the checks instead of taking the checks, and hobnob with all those other former members of Congress who, like you, decided not to go home.
The Rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/the-last-act-in-alternati_b_4049264.html
