Shutdown: forget politics, how about morality?

Everyone has different beliefs about what's moral and what's not. I know what I believe, and I know other people believe differently. But there's one rule that is essential for civilization: whatever you're doing, imagine how the world would be if everyone behaved that way. If the result is bad, don't do it. ("Do unto others...")

Some examples: stealing from the grocery store; leaving your dog's waste in the neighbor's yard; assaulting someone over an old family feud; not paying your taxes. In each case, if everyone behaved that way, the result would be a much worse world for everyone. So we can declare those wrong, even if (like in America) people believe many different things.

I'm going to ask you to not read further until you decide whether you agree with me or not. You have to be willing to be wrong. Pick a position, and be willing to follow where it leads. With me so far?

Now, apply this principle to the government shutdown. Keep in mind that for this discussion, I'm referring to the parties, but describing only the elected officials. Unless you're in Congress, I'm not talking about (or insulting) you. So please don't take this personally; it's not.

Democrats won't fund government if it defunds an existing law. Republicans won't fund government if it does fund that law. Are we agreed that's what's happening?

Now, apply our standard. What if everyone behaved like the Democrats? We'd keep laws we have, until the opposition wins enough elections to change them. In other words, the system would work as designed by our founders.

And if everyone behaved like the Republicans? Some group or other would constantly be shutting down the entire government to get one law repealed. We wouldn't have a government! And if anyone thinks having no government is good, I suggest that you move to Somalia and see how that works out in practice.

Finally, what if the Democrats "compromised", and everyone behaved like that? Then you'd see more and more groups behaving like the Republicans are. Again, total systemic failure.

The Republicans aren't wrong on the shutdown because of Obamacare (though they are responsible for spreading huge numbers of lies about it). The Republicans are wrong because their actions break the entire constitutional system they claim to protect.

In other words, they're hypocrites.

You can agree with their goals, that's a whole other topic on which reasonable people can disagree. But the Republican House's means of achieving those goals are simply unamerican.