Blame for the shutdown: Where responsibility really lies

MAGA lies and the Hatch Act 

MAGA demagoguery is in full-blown liar and slander mode about who is responsible for the government shutdown. As expected, MAGA demagoguery tells us it is 100% the Democrats fault. From what I can tell, the MAGA demagogues ' accusations and slanders are being done illegally. It looks to me like Trump's and MAGA's messaging clearly violates the Hatch Act. 

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty, in federal facilities, or using government resources. The law defines "political activity" as any activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. The Act's purposes are to ensure federal programs are administered nonpartisanly, protect employees from political coercion, and ensure merit-based advancement. Given that it is inconvenient, Trump has recently moved to gut enforcement of the law.

Meh, what difference does it make that Trump and MAGA elites break laws any more? For them and their supporters, the rule of law is crap now. A MAGA USSC protects them. Especially for Trump it's all OK because the unitary executive (dictator) did it and because the USSC made him immune from criminal prosecution for his crimes.

The blame game:  The rule of law aside, the NYT reports (not paywalled) that some federal agencies are using their official websites and social media for political attacks after the government shutdown. That's the Hatch Act violation. MAGA federal agencies officially lie when say that Democrats were to blame for the shutdown. That puts legal nonpartisan government bureaucracy into an illegal fight.

Staying disciplined with MAGA talking points as MAGA elites usually do, major federal agencies, including Treasury, Health, State and Agriculture, placed illegal banner messages on their websites and on social media accounts claiming the shutdown was caused by Democrats or the “radical left”. Trump thugs ordered employees at the Labor Department to include a MAGA message in their out-of-office email replies that blames Democratic senators for the shutdown. 

Most employees at the Small Business Administration were working during the shutdown, but some of the ~25% who were furloughed had this out-of-office email response: “I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R. 5371), leading to a government shutdown that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses”.

MAGA's partisan lies are aggressive and intrusive. They extend to internal communications. For example, the Department of Education automatically often changed employees' out-of-office email messages to blame "Democrat Senators" for blocking funding legislation. Employees were often unaware of the change. Some employees who changed the lie back to nonpartisan language found them changed back. That is aggressive authoritarian MAGA demagoguery.

We can expect that there will be no significant repercussions for any of the people involved this illegal, misanthropic MAGA sleaze & slander operation.

Analyzing who is mostly responsible for this shutdown

From an evidence, reason and morality point of view, there are multiple reasons to argue and rationally believe that Trump and MAGA elites are at least ~90% responsible for the shutdown.

1. First, MAGA controls congress, the White House and the USSC. That means the GOP has primary responsibility for governing in what MAGA claims to be defending, namely democracy, the rule of law ad civil liberties. MAGA messaging and rank and file voter belief are overwhelmingly pro-democracy, pro-rule of law and pro-civil liberties. A democracy requires reasonable compromise. By refusing to compromise with what Democrats want, primarily protection for Obamacare, MAGA politicians have refused to compromise. Refusal to reasonably compromise is the hallmark of authoritarianism, in this case a Trump dictatorship hiding behind the cynical euphemism the USSC calls the "unitary executive".

2. Second, the rise of Trump and MAGA to power relied heavily on demagoguery in the form of constant, blatant divisive lies, slanders, unwarranted, irrational emotional manipulation,** and knowingly flawed, often crackpot, reasoning. Deceived people who mistakenly put bad people in power do not absolve the bad people in power from moral responsibility to act in the deceived people's best interests. Morality dictates that nearly all of the responsibility lies with those in power.

** For example, unwarranted, unjustified fear and anger mongering, and fomenting of unwarranted, unjustified bigotry, distrust, hate, and false beliefs that MAGA lies are truths.  

3. For most Americans who are actually aware of what is really happening, majority public opinion generally opposes most of what MAGA is doing, i.e., breaking laws, being corrupt, lying all of the time, slandering (calling the Dems tyrants, radicals, socialists, etc.), taking civil liberties away (abortion, voting rights), spewing crackpot conspiracy theories, etc. For nearly all people who believe the MAGA narratives, little to none of that is true in their minds. But they are conned, deceived and not aware of what is really happening. [1]

It is arguably rational, far and balanced to base opinions in a democracy on facts, truths and sound reasoning, while downplaying the opinions of people who are deceived, lying or generally acting in bad faith. In an authoritarian state such as a dictatorship, facts, truths and sound reasoning are mostly irrelevant. The leader(s) does whatever circumstances and their power allows them to get away with. But America isn't yet an authoritarian state. Despite their authoritarianism and corruption, Trump and MAGA still have a profound moral duty to behave like they are in a democracy. Continuing to act otherwise can be seen as treasonous betrayal. That line of reasoning puts blame on Trump and MAGA elites.

Source

An awful lot of people are unsure

Unsure mostly means uninformed

Footnote:

1. It is very important to understand the relevance, power and moral relevance of deceived minds in a democracy. When the authoritarian agenda of Trump, MAGA elites are presented honestly and transparently to Americans, including the goals in Project 2025, they overwhelmingly reject it. Hence the absolute necessity of demagoguery, deceit, lies, slanders and all the rest of MAGA's morally rotted but highly sophisticated and disciplined messaging. MAGA messaging is deep moral rot, but it is highly effective rot.

And MAGA's moral rot messaging is knowing and intentional. Before the 2024 elections Trump actively distanced himself from Project 2025 despite its development by over 140 former Trump administration officials. His assertions that he knows nothing about Project 2025 is strategic denial, not ignorance.