Right now, less than two in ten Americans trust the government to do the right thing, and I'm not surprised.

Some of it might be because of the bad taste in our mouths left from the COVID-19 pandemic, and some because of current economic instability, but a key reason is the political tribalism and obstructionism that's been increasingly plaguing our government, as exemplified by our close call with a government shutdown last weekend.

It began when a faction of far-right Republicans known as the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives blocked the passage of various government spending bills for the next fiscal year, insisting on massive spending cuts to reverse the country's debt that has run rampant since the pandemic. Their solution was to cut domestic social programs, aid for Ukraine, and racial diversity efforts. This was clearly an attempt to further their political agenda and would be a hit to the social progress we've been working so hard toward, which is why House Democrats refused to accommodate these demands. 

The situation escalated into a full-on gridlock that seemed like it wouldn't reach a conclusion by September 30th, the deadline to agree on a spending package. Without such a decision, the government would have run out of funding and be forced to shut down. The implications of such a shutdown included suspending the salaries of almost 4 million government-employed citizens. However, some workers deemed essential, such as military personnel, law enforcement, and border patrol, would still have to come to work without being paid. This could have been detrimental to federal workers who live paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to keep coming to a non-paying job. 

Among all of these effects, what's funny is that members of Congress, including House Representatives – the very people who caused the near-shutdown – would've felt no impact on their salaries while other federal workers went unpaid. Yes, it's vital that the people who make our country's hardest decisions receive compensation for their service. Still, it's a problem if our leaders can create policies that deeply impact other citizens but not themselves. Politicians are elected to put the American people first, but how can they do this if they aren't in the same boat as us? This lack of empathy is concerning, and it's likely what enables politicians, like those in the Freedom Caucus, to lose touch with the people.

Fortunately, the shutdown was prevented, albeit dangerously close to the deadline. Exactly on September 30th, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution, a short-term temporary measure extending the spending bill deadline by 45 days. Now, lawmakers have until November 17th to agree on a budget. But even this took work. Speaker of the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy, had to rely on help from Democrat representatives to advance the Continuing Resolution: the vote was 335 to 91, with 90 of the opposing votes coming from Republicans who refused to budge on their demanded spending cuts. McCarthy's own party wasn't even willing to cooperate. And now that the immediate budget crisis has passed, these tensions within the Republican Party are bubbling up to the surface. Citing that McCarthy has been too cooperative with the Democrats, Republican House Representative Matt Gaetz filed a motion on Monday, October 2nd, to vote him out of his position as Speaker of the House. With the Republicans' mistrust of him and the Democrats' unwillingness to save him, McCarthy became the first Speaker in history to be ousted. 

The sheer chaos from the past week's events demonstrates the mess that the Republican Party is in. Members of the party took to social media to fire insults at each other, while others denounced the infighting as a "clown show" and an "unmitigated disaster." It seems that modern U.S. politics is being reduced to a game of petty grudges, pointing fingers, and pride, bringing us further and further from our ideas of democracy. Division in our government is healthy, but only in moderation. To the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus Republicans, agreeing to avoid a government shutdown was no different from admitting defeat to the Democrats. But we must learn to compromise and stop perceiving the other party as the enemy. Bipartisanship is not weakness; party lines become insignificant when the nation is at risk. Politicians must place action over ego since their obligation is to the American people, not their party. At the end of the day, whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, we're all after the same goal: bettering our country.