On October 09, 2013, Calvin Woodward and Jennifer Agiesta wrote on HUFF POST  website POLITICS, which was posted on October 12, 2013, the day of this writing, an article entitled:    Government Shutdown Blamed On Republicans: Poll.

Keeping in mind the ongoing poll assessment is a very fluid gauge of how Americans feel about their governmental shutdown, nevertheless, it is obvious they feel the Republicans are primarily to blame for the shutdown.

Woodward and Agiesta report that “Overall, 62 percent mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown. About half said Obama or the Democrats in Congress bear much responsibility.”

Woodward and Agiesta report that the Associated Press-GfK survey, “… that the GOP may end up taking the biggest hit in public opinion from the fiscal paralysis….”

Martha Blair, 71, of Kerrville, Texas, said “…she blamed Obama, House Republicans, Senate Democrats or the tea party for the shutdown,  All of them.” She reported that she paid to fly with a group to four national parks in Arizona and California next month and she realizes that if the parks aren’t open “she can’t get her money back or reschedule.”

Although I don’t know the precise reason for Blair’s upset, I could speculate why she felt as she did. She   might have reasoned, why should a fellow citizen like herself be penalized for doing nothing wrong; yet, she’s not able to visit any of the national parks that she had already paid for; the payment not being refundable because the park service is closed since the government is shut down and there’s no means to pay the employees who service the parks? That simply doesn’t seem fair. Thinking there’s no reason for this to happen, reasoning, the impasse Congress and the president are having should be able to be resolved without the Republican Party, yet again, practicing “brinkmanship” by shutting down the government in hopes that a compromise between the two political parties can be achieved.

One of the greatest reasons for We, the People’s, malcontent is because so many of us, our fellow Americans, feel we no longer can trust and depend on our government to do the people’s business expeditiously, where they end up compromising and passing legislation that benefit all Americans.

Extremism is never good for our democratic system of government. The reason is because no compromise can ever be achieved unless the more moderate position is expressed because moderation allows room for compromise to occur. However, that in itself is not the end of the story; at the moment, both the Democrats and the Republicans are “playing to” their political party’s base, which excludes a good number of Americans who don’t embrace either political party’s extreme position.

The Constitution was established with the intent that democracy would flourish and a variety of viewpoints would be given expression and receive due consideration under the law. How does that happen if only the two political parties’ talking points are all extreme and are the only ones given public expression?

At the moment, the extremist of the extreme, the Republican tea party, who, according to Woodward and Agiesta, are “more than a gang of malcontents in the political landscape, as its supporters in Congress have been portrayed by Democrats. Rather, it’s a sizable – and divisive – force among Republicans. More than 4 in 10 Republicans identified with the tea party and were more apt than other Republicans to insist that their leaders hold firm in the standoff over reopening government and avoiding a default of the nation’s debt in coming weeks.”

According to Woodward and Agiesta, “Obama is insisting Republicans reopen government and avert default before any negotiations on deficit reduction or his 2010 health care law are held.”

Woodward and Agiesta mention the poll suggests 53 percent are unhappy with the way President Obama is handling his job, whereas 37 percent approve of the way he’s handling it. They suggest Congress is “scraping rock bottom, with a ghastly approval rating of 5 percent.”

The survey also showed:

“Fifty-two percent said Obama is not doing enough to cooperate with Republicans to end the shutdown; 63 percent say Republicans aren’t doing enough to cooperate with him.

“Sixty-eight percent said the shutdown is a major problem for the country, including majorities of Republicans (58 percent), Democrats (82 percent) and independents (57 percent).

The AP-GfK Poll provides a snapshot of public opinion. Please keep in mind that such polls are very sensitive to political changes and may not accurately reflect the political climate at any given point in time. This poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 and involved online interviews with 1,227 adults. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents.