Chip Off The Old Block

 If your government should happen to shut down on you, it probably doesn't have anything to do with you. Don't take it personally. The nincompoops currently at the wheel of the ship of state certainly don't. As has been the case so often in the past, the political wrangling currently underway for control of the direction we go is nothing new. And has essentially nothing to do with printing Social Security checks or keeping our National Parks open. 

Nope. This one is another in a series of partisan wrangling being used for leverage to pass legislation that will keep the lights on and the doors open but will also attempt to squeeze in some suspect bits that would most certainly aid one side over the other. In this version of our story, Republicans of a certain stripe would very much like to attach the SAVE Act to the paperwork needed to keep the EPA inspecting our food along with a myriad of other services. 

Sorry. I forgot to explain the SAVE Act. It is a piece of work from a real piece of work known as Representative Chip Roy from Texas. Chip isn't his real name, but it certainly sounds more Texas than "Charles Eugene." He worked for such luminaries as Rick Perry and Ted Cruz on his path to becoming a lawmaker in his own right. He brought all that MAGAt baggage with him: denying climate change, an insistence on the existence of a "deep state," and the entrails of The Freedom Caucus.

Which of course means that the "crisis on our southern border" lives rent-free in his head 24-7. This, in turn, brings about his scribbling the SAVE Act: Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. The main purpose of this attempt at reforming our democratic process is to require voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration. What's that? You wonder why this is necessary since being a citizen is already a requirement for voting in the United States? Well, this is Rep. Chip's fear-filled brain we're talking about, so if there is a way to keep Mexico or Haiti from stealing an election from the Irish and other decidedly less brown folks. If that sounds a little harsh, let's keep in mind that Rep. Chip is also the guy who said that the current state of border security would bring about "the end of Western Civilization." 

Of course, one might argue that shuttering the United States Government for any period of time might have a similar effect, since agencies like the Border Patrol will be impacted by this now somewhat commonplace game of chicken being played in Congress. A confusing set of circumstances, since it was this same herd of far-right sheep who followed their orange shepherd's demand to vote down the bi-partisan border bill that would have strengthened control down El Paso way. 

Timing is everything in government, I suppose. But time once again is running out.