Zurtlespace

Another funny thing about our already hilarious shutdown: the longer it goes on, the easier it gets to start blaming it, at least initially, for unrelated failures. Case-in-point: the water-pressure was pitifully low when I took my shower this morning, akin to standing under an overflowing gutter in the rain. My initial thought? ‘Oh great, now they’re using our water to squeeze us.’

This was of course a silly idea, as was proven later when I stepped outside and saw the busted water pipe that had flooded the entire street, but the fact that I even went there is suggestive of something sinister; minor paranoia is already starting to affect my thinking.

The administration is calling the Republican’s tactics ‘hostage-taking’ and ‘terrorism.’ The purpose of terrorism is to achieve political outcomes by way of instilling the sense of fear and paranoia in its intended targets, and manipulating those emotions through means nefarious and foul.

Certainly, hostage-taking of any sort falls under this definition.

But if terrorist-related action can be measured by results, then the administrations very public demonstrations of the results of calling the Republican bluff can be taken as the executive equivalent of shooting the hostage; it causes just as much fear and uncertainty, particularly since the shooter is, according to his own narrative, supposed to be the good guy.

I imagine our perception of things will continue to get more distorted the longer this continues. And isn’t that what this fight is ultimately about?