The last day of Trump’s first year in office revealed the most common trait of his presidency: Chaos.

On Saturday, the United States government was officially shut down. However, unlike previous government shutdowns in U.S. history — that is, those that took place under the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton, H.W. Bush and Obama — President Trump’s government shutdown had three characteristics that make it quite unique.

First, this was a self-induced government shutdown. In effect, it was President Trump himself who suddenly decided to end DACA (Deferral Action for Childhood Act) upon its expiration in March, leaving the so-called “Dreamers,” their families, and the communities in which these young immigrants have been integrated in the limbo.

This very action led Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress to propose a permanent legal protection for ‘Dreamers” in exchange for a more comprehensive immigration reform, which President Trump then conditioned upon his government receiving funding for his “Wall.”

Yet, negotiations ended when President Trump, using his self-promoted “negotiation skills,” managed to insult an entire continent, several countries, and various racial minorities in the U.S.

In truth, President Trump’s unexpected changes-of-mind and continuous emotional outbursts are the root causes of today’s government shutdown as the negotiating parties ended up losing trust in the President’s word and the Democrats in the Senate using this government disruption as their last resource to force an immigration deal on DACA. It has become the norm; every crisis starts with Trump.

Second, Trump’s government shutdown was also a “political shutdown.” In no other previous government shutdown in America, one political party controlled simultaneously the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House.

Although, in the long-term, the political cost of this government disruption depended on how long it would last, in the short-term the political cost is nonetheless undisputable. Not only both the president and the Republican Party appeared playing politics with the lives of nearly 700,000 dreamers, but further jeopardizing the lives of millions of Americans across the country, who in many ways were affected by this brief yet costly interruption.

In fact, it is estimated that a government shutdown costs tax payers in United States $6.5 billion U.S. a week, for which the balance of a four-day government shutdown could have political and economic costs for the government.

On the other side, to continue blaming Democrats for this situation becomes a useless political distraction. After all, Democrats are at least justified by their interest in protecting the dreamers, which legal protection does nowadays count with 83 per cent of popular support. And, even though the government will be reopened to its full capacity soon, the situation of the “dreamers” whose immigration status expires in just six weeks remains nevertheless uncertain.

Finally, beneath Trump’s government shutdown lies an increasingly appalling “moral abandonment.” Even though government shutdowns in America have become political tools used by political parties in Congress as ultimatums to pressure presidents and their administrations into accepting demands that otherwise through regular channels of negotiation such governments might not be inclined to accept, this government shutdown, in particular, was preceded by a rather historic set-of-circumstances that have led the country to question not only the character, mental and moral fitness of this president but also the very values upon which the nation’s identity was built.

Immigration “colour policies,” racism, xenophobia, hate speech, censorship, political indifference and authoritarianism are becoming ordinary yet competing values vis-à-vis the constitutional prongs of equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that once inspired and eventually led this nation to exist in the first place. This, I am afraid, is the moral test of our time.

Jose Mauricio Gaona is a Saul Hayes and O’Brien Fellow at McGill University’s Faculty of Law and a Vanier Canada Scholar.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: