Slate "The Government Shutdown Is Like a Hostage Situation"
Trump and his fellow Republicans are using the same tactics as criminal captors demanding ransom.
By WILLIAM SALETAN
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/trump-republicans-shutdown-hostages.html
In February 1974, the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing radical group, kidnapped the 19-year-old daughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. The SLA claimed to represent “all oppressed people,” “self-determination,” and “human and constitutional rights.” It “requested” that Hearst show “good faith” by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in food aid to the poor. “The people are awaiting your gesture,” an SLA leader told Hearst. “We will accept a sincere effort on your part.”
The Hearst case, like other abductions, was violent and far removed from the genteel halls of Congress. But if you want to understand the behavior of Republicans in the current government shutdown, you have to understand kidnapping. The tactics of President Donald Trump and his congressional allies—taking hostages, using them as messengers, and blaming their suffering on the people who could ransom them—echo the tactics of criminal captors like the SLA.
In the shutdown, the hostages are public employees, veterans, and everyone else who depends on federal payments. The ransom is $5 billion. Like other ideologues, the Republicans claim to have a good cause: a wall on the Mexican border. But morally, the bottom line is the same: You can’t hold people hostage, even if you think your cause is worthy. The question at stake isn’t border security. It’s whether the government will shut down and stay closed every time extremists demand money for a pet cause.
Trump forced this debacle. On Dec. 11, he said, “If we don’t get what we want … I will shut down the government.” On Jan. 2, two weeks into the shutdown, he thanked Vice President Mike Pence for congratulating him on taking “a strong stand to shut down the government until we secure the funding to build a wall.” But now Trump is trying to hold congressional Democrats, from whom he has demanded ransom, responsible for dragging their feet. “Look, this shutdown could end tomorrow, [or] it could also go on for a long time,” Trump told reporters on Saturday. “It’s really dependent on the Democrats.” On Sunday, Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, disputed suggestions that the president was responsible. On the contrary, Mulvaney proposed, “It’s the Democrats’ refusal to give the necessary money for border security that is the cause of the shutdown.”
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