Shutting Down

The Path to Social, Political and Economic Chaos in America

The U.S. government is shut down. But the budget fight is only the surface. Beneath it lies a systemic fracture: an unravelling of institutions, norms, the economy, and America’s credibility abroad.

Shutdowns have become routine political theatre. What used to be an extraordinary crisis is now standard operating procedure. That is not because of accounting disputes; it is because the country itself is split into two incompatible visions of government. One side sees government as the problem; the other sees it as the solution. This is no longer a policy disagreement, but an existential rift.

The divide cuts across every fault line.

• Inequality has hardened into exclusion. The widening wealth gap turns politics into a zero-sum struggle where every debate becomes existential.

• Political violence is no longer an outlier. Threats, intimidation, and physical attacks on civic sp…