The Blame Game

This week, the threat of a government shut down has been realized. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that the United States government is closed for business due to the actions of elected leadership in Washington, DC. The last shutdown was in 2019, and this is the twenty-first shut down experienced since 1976. “The most recent was also the longest one in U.S. history, when a disagreement over funding for Trump’s border wall closed the government for 34 full days in December 2018 into January 2019.” While there is no way to know how long this shut down will last, the blame game is well underway in these early hours, even as the lives of millions will be disrupted – nationally and internationally.

At stake are federal workers, government contractors, and other government adjacent workers who will not be paid. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 750,000 workers would be furloughed. Millions who will lose health care and access to food and nutrition programs, as well as millions lost for education. The finger pointing is not aiding in resolving the current shut down, instead, it is furthering the challenges presented by notions of “we” and “them” as the President of the United States targets government workers for termination of employment, and wields presidential powers with threats to people, programs, and services.

The notion of cutting “Democrat agencies” and withholding funds from “blue states” – identified as states won by Vice President Harris in the 2024 election – implies a “we/them” proposition that suggests these places or agencies only serve individuals along party lines which is far from the truth. Instead, it further highlights the cruelty being inflicted on the masses in the intentional widening of the political divide. The desire to punish individuals for not supporting any party with their vote defies the right to vote and is a violation of civil and human rights. And those who support this president are collateral damage in a battle across partisan lines that is affecting all the people.

In the blaming of people and party is the infliction of intentional harm in communities and the exacerbation of fear in the lives of people. And, this is coupled with the challenges to the right to free speech and the right to protest which is the guaranteed ability to express opinions and ideas without government interference, protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The rights of the people are being trampled by a government quick to identify a “we” that is included and can flourish versus a “them” that is problematized and targeted to suffer for reasons including lack of support for the actions and policies implemented by the president and his administration. This in defiance of a democracy built on the right to hold a difference of opinion, even when that difference is political, including critique of government and leadership.

“We the people” was problematic when the constitution was written with the exclusion of indigenous people and enslaved Africans. “We the people” should be understood as inclusive of all people regardless of their heritage, their vote, or their support of any party, government, or president. In this moment, we the people has also been weaponized, highlighted as an exclusive reeking of supremacy and nationalism.

The government shutdown is the latest weapon that is exacerbating the political divide while ignoring the problems that exist. It is another place where the executive branch of the United States government has weaponized its powers to the detriment and harm of some of the people. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” is a core tenet of democracy that is being buried beneath the rubble of a crumbling democracy. These words were made popular because of their use by President Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address.

This foundation of democracy was first stated by Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister in 1850.  Now, as then, people of faith should language the commitment to democracy, to the freedoms afforded by civil and human rights, and to the inclusion of all people. It was also Parker who coined the words made famous by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

This is not a time to be consumed by the fears of blaming and the amplification of injustice. Instead, this is the time to continue to advocate for justice, to advocate for change, and to ensure that “justice rolls down like waters.” The blame game is a tool of distraction and a weapon of injustice.