>>One final comment - I find this point of view ("if it's so bad, stand back and let it fail") to be 100% cynical and typical of "political ruling class thinking". When a strong majority of citizens hold a certain view, their leaders have a responsibility to fight. And sometimes fights get ugly

You made that up. In modern Western systems, parties implement policies because they won the election. Opposition doesn't get a mid-term opportunity to overturn legislation in exchange for allowing government to continue.

Consider it the other way around: consider in 2016 the Republicans are in power and need Democrat support to fund government. The Dems insist that they'll only do it if the top tax rate is raised to 40%, or a national health scheme is initiated or some other policy in which the Dems have interest and perceive public support. Still proper behavior?

>>American citizens have been getting shafted for far too long. We need government representatives to protect Americans from bad laws. I am torn by the fact that a GOOD government program (WIC) is facing a shutdown at the end of October, with the fact that the Republicans in the House are finally showing some courage against a corrupt political machine.

LOL. People get the government they deserve. Everybody in power, was voted into power. Regret the decision? You get a chance to change it at the next election. This may not be perfect, but as a wise dude once said: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Which is what will be happening if it's OK for opposition parties to extract ransom mid-term.

>> There is zero question that the White House is using the shutdown to try to cast the R's as monsters. The recent quote from a Senior White House official to the Wall Street Journal confirms this.

As opposed to casting Obama as a Fascist? The horror, the horror.

>>When I think of the things Barack Obama has done since re-election....lying to people about taxes not going up a dime when payroll taxes indeed increased....trying to sign a secret executive order to give Congress a small pay raise....releasing photos of himself doing a celebration dance on the golf course when millions of Americans can't take a vacation.....flying their dog on a separate plane for family vacations....and then trying to bamboozle and lie about AHCA...just makes me angry and ill.

Next he'll declare war to eradicate WMD, bug his opponent's premises, have sex with an intern, appease Stalin, or perpetrate a million and one other pragmatic behaviors that never ever ever can have happened before because Obama is the font of all evil.