Ever since the government shutdown began a month ago, it’s been a challenge to identify anyone in real life — outside of government employees — who has noticed or cared in any meaningful way. Even Democrats don’t seem particularly bothered by the shutdown. They’ve been spending most of their time lately complaining about the renovations that are underway in the East Wing of the White House — which is the kind of thing you complain about when you desperately need to find something to complain about, but you have absolutely no other options whatsoever.
Even if you normally don’t care much about how the government spends your money, this is the kind of development that might make you sit up and take notice. There are road closures and potholes that have probably caused you more inconvenience this month than the shutdown of the entire federal government. And as a result, for millions of Americans, it’s now impossible to ignore the fact that the government you’re forced to pay for — all of the salaries and all of the pensions and so on — doesn’t actually do very much. In the vast majority of cases, the federal government has zero impact on your day-to-day life, or your week-to-week life. They are not “public servants” in the sense that they serve you — in reality, you serve them.
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