VIDEO: Students blame both parties for government shutdown
Calling the government "pretty dysfunctional," students told Campus Reform "everyone is a little bit to blame for it," and that both parties "lost" the shutdown.
Republicans have received the lion's share of the blame for past government shutdowns, but students at New York University say both parties share responsibility for this weekend's latest impasse.
Republicans may be having more luck escaping blame for the latest government shutdown, at least according to students at New York University.
Although the shutdown came to a close Monday after 69 hours, the political blame game has only just begun. Republicans were quick to label the event “The Schumer Shutdown,” blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, while Democrats sought to place the blame on President Trump and Republican leadership.
With the 2018 midterm elections rapidly approaching, the question of who takes the blame amongst the electorate is an important one.
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In 2013, for instance, Republicans took the majority of the blame for a 16-day government shutdown even though Democrats held both the Senate and the White House at the time.
A contemporary Washington Post-ABC poll, for instance, found that 53 percent of voters placed the blame on GOP leaders while 29 percent blamed Democrats and President Obama, with just 15 percent saying that both sides shared the blame equally.
That sentiment was especially noticeable among millennials, with 59 percent blaming Republicans and 24 percent blaming Democrats.
[RELATED: VIDEO: DC students blame Bush, not Obama, for shutdown]
Wanting to know if that same resentment for obstructionist tactics in Congress would be felt by millennials now that Democrats were the minority party, Campus Reform headed to NYU in Manhattan to ask a simple question: “Who do you blame for the shutdown?”
It quickly became clear that the students weren’t ready to place the blame solely on either party, regardless of who is currently in power, saying that Republican and Democrat leaders are both responsible for the situation.
“I mean, the government in general is pretty dysfunctional, so there’s equal blame on both sides,” one student responded, with a classmate concurring that “they sort of both lost...the people didn’t really win.”
“The fact that people aren’t talking to each other; working across the line...I think everyone is a little bit to blame for it,” another student opined.
Watch the full video to see what they had to say!
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @cabot_phillips
