a 22-Year-Old POV: Shutdown Politics

I’m 22. I watched the government shut down for 40 days—the longest in American history. I watched 42 million people lose SNAP benefits. I watched federal workers miss paychecks. I watched food banks run out of food while politicians argued.

This week I watched Democrats give up. They caved. After holding the line for five weeks, they surrendered. The deal they accepted? Fund the government through January. Get a promise—just a promise—of a vote on healthcare subsidies in December. No guarantee that vote passes. No protection for the 24 million Americans whose premiums are about to double when ACA subsidies expire.

Republicans were by far the coldest Party I’ve ever seen, heartless – and they got the win. Democrats got a handshake and a “maybe later.”

Rep. Richie Torres called it: “an unconditional surrender.”

This Is What It Looks Like When Your Union Gives Up

Imagine you’re in a union. You’ve been on strike for weeks. Management won’t budge. Your coworkers are hurting—missing rent, skipping meals, desperate. And at the final hour, your union leadership walks into the room and accepts management’s original offer. Nothing gained. Everything lost.

You’d look up at that leadership and feel hopeless. You’d wonder why you pay dues. You’d know you don’t belong.

That’s what just happened.

Democrats spent 40 days claiming they wouldn’t reopen the government without healthcare protections. Then they voted to reopen it without healthcare protections. They got a promise of a vote—terms they’d already rejected a month earlier.

Sen. John Hickenlooper said: “There’s no good choice.” Translation: We gave up because it was hard.

Where Do We Belong?

If you’re between 15 and 25, looking at American politics, where’s your home?

Republicans? The party that just held food assistance hostage for 40 days to avoid extending healthcare subsidies? The party that forced 42 million Americans—the poorest, most vulnerable people in the country—to go without food benefits over a fight about keeping insurance affordable?

Republicans made it clear: their goal is accumulating wealth and power. Period. Not serving people. Serving donors. Serving corporations. Serving themselves.

But Democrats? The party that claims to fight for working people? They just demonstrated they won’t actually fight. Eight senators broke ranks. Seven Democrats and one independent voted with Republicans to end the shutdown without getting what they said they needed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the healthcare crisis was “so severe, so urgent, so devastating” that he couldn’t support the deal. But enough of his caucus did anyway.

If Democrats won’t hold the line on healthcare for 24 million people and food for 42 million people—if they fold after five weeks when Republicans aren’t even bleeding politically—what will they fight for?

There’s No Home For Us

If you’re poor, there’s no home for you in either party. Republicans actively harm you. Democrats abandon you when it gets uncomfortable.

If you’re working class, there’s no home for you. One party serves billionaires openly. The other serves billionaires quietly while claiming they don’t.

If you’re a person of color, if you need a safety net, if you’re not entitled to inherited wealth and privilege—where do you go?

The majority middle? There’s no room for us. We’re told to pick a side in a fight where both sides have already decided we’re expendable.

What Did the System Do to Itself?

This is the question I keep asking. How did American politics create such distance between itself and us?

The shutdown fight wasn’t complicated. Democrats wanted ACA subsidies extended so 24 million people wouldn’t lose insurance or see massive premium increases. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. These subsidies are a tiny fraction of the federal budget. Extending them would cost less than the money we just sent to bail out Argentina.

But Republicans said no. For 40 days. While federal workers went unpaid. While SNAP recipients went hungry. While the country suffered.

And Democrats… just gave up. Sen. Angus King said “waiting another week or another month wouldn’t deliver a better outcome.” Maybe. But we’ll never know because they didn’t try.

This is the system eating itself. Both parties have abandoned everyone except their donors and their comfortable constituents.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I don’t know. I’m 22. I’m supposed to believe in this system. I’m supposed to think my vote matters, that organizing matters, that showing up matters.

But what am I showing up for? A Democratic Party that folds when it matters most? A Republican Party that weaponizes suffering?

The working class has no home here. The poor have no home here. Young people looking for a future have no home here.

We’re told to be patient. To vote. To engage. To believe the system works.

But today I watched the system demonstrate exactly what it is: two parties arguing over our suffering while neither one actually stops it.

Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the distance is intentional. Maybe they want us to feel homeless so we stop demanding they actually govern.

I don’t have answers. I just know I’m 22, I’m trying, but I see no home for people like me in politics. Given who we are, and what we stand for, the future— I find this corrupt and empowering at the same time. 

I know I’m not alone.

– Felice Bloom