On October 16, 2013, Molly Ball, a staff writer covering national politics at The Atlantic, posted a blog on their website entitled: Republicans shut Down the Government for Nothing.

Ball reports:  “The GOP will actually get less out of the final deal being brokered than the party would have gotten had House conservatives never staged their revolt on Obamacare. In fact, the drama is likely to end with Republicans ceding policy concessions to Democrats.”

Ball further states:  “Had the House passed the ‘clean’ continuing resolution it was offered on September 30, the government would have remained open only until November 15, at the reduced funding levels determined by the “sequestration” cuts imposed by the 2011 debt-limit deal… Instead, the House is “poised to pass” a measure that funds the government through January 15 and lifts the debt ceiling until February 7—taking the heat off Congress for months…. The proposed deal negotiated by Senate leaders also would force the two houses to convene a budget committee, something Democrats have ‘been demanding ‘since the Senate passed a budget in March—and conservative Republicans have repeatedly blocked, for fear that any compromise negotiated between the two houses would mean selling out their principles.” (Italics mine).

Ball emphatically states: “Obamacare will not be repealed. Obamacare will not be defunded. Obamacare will not be delayed. The individual mandate will not be delayed. The medical-device tax will not be repealed….”

The “Democrats will get the government funded at levels they (grudgingly) sought in the first place, for longer than they originally sought, and without the looming threat of default,” Ball reports.

The House Republicans, spurred on by the extreme tea-party ultraconservative Republicans, were hoping through coercion that by closing down most of the government, they would force the Democrats to cave-in and acquiesce to their demands to repeal the Affordable Care Act, called disrespectfully “Obamacare,”  as well as not raise the debt limit. Well, as Ball reports, none of those objectives were attained.

All of this humongous unnecessary expense to our government because of the partial shutdown has cost our taxpayers billions of their hard earned money because the 32 rock solid, ultra conservative Republican tea party members refused to negotiate because negotiating between the two houses would mean “selling out their principles.”

Now, I ask you, what principles are the tea party members speaking of? If they were indeed “principled,” what they would have done is not put our country through this 16 day government shut-down scenario in the first place!

Consistent with what I say in my book What Would Our Founding Fathers Say?: How Today’s Leaders Have Lost Their Way, if today’s leaders and Congress had read and put into practice the Four Foundations of Freedom as espoused by the Founding Fathers, the guidelines our forefathers have urged politicians and citizens alike to review and follow, our country would not be in the fix it finds itself in today. That’s because, when it comes to these four percepts (foundations) as they apply to the Constitution, they are interrelated and are all important to honor if our government were to function optimally, where it no longer appears broken as it clearly is perceived to be today.

The two most important virtues to honor are the private and public virtues, for those are the two virtues that refer to our integrities, which form the backbone of our republic and our democratic system.

Private virtue refers to the importance of living life with integrity. It simply means being honest with yourself and others. Private virtue also means treating others as you’d like to be treated. The best way that is accomplished is by following not only your head, but your heart as well. For it’s through compassion, serving your family and others in a responsible way that provides the framework for democracy to flourish in the way our Founding Fathers had intended. 

Public virtue speaks to the need a democratic republic has for its members to voluntarily sacrifice personal benefit for something greater than themselves. It means leaders and citizens alike must understand they are part of a society. That society has needs that are greater than any individual or political party’s gain.

When it comes to politics, you can’t have private virtue without public virtue if we are to respond to our Constitutional dictates as they should be acted upon. That’s precisely what John Adams, second president of the United States, said, when referring to the connection between the private and public virtue. He said, “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and pubic virtue is the only foundation of republics.”

It’s obvious to see how our two most important freedom foundations have been violated by the partial shutting down of our government for 16 days.

The main reason our government has run amuck is because our politicians are serving themselves and their political party’s extreme elements, rather than the American public they pledged to serve and protect by observing and following the tenets as stated in their Constitution.