The recent government shutdown showed the true face of our politicians and the media.

It was easy to point fingers and blame one side over the other for the prolonged shutdown, but neither side attempted to discuss viable options. 

Any time there was a discussion between the two parties, disagreement would arise which would then be followed by a swift silence, leading to yet another unpassed bill and another tally under days-without-pay for government employees.

Washington has two weeks to figure something out but, inevitably, egos will grow, emotions will boil and the cycle will repeat itself into another standoff. If you believe otherwise then you’re an optimist and I applaud you, but you should try to get out more.

It does not help that the media is extremely divided on this topic. When sources of news favor a political party, the validity of opinions formed from those sources are simply unapparent.

CNN and MSNBC push the liberal agenda. FOX pushes the conservative agenda. Somewhere in the midst is the actual story, but very few people dig through the catastrophe that media has become in order to find it.

Sure, you can blame President Donald Trump for all that is wrong in the world; CNN says it’s okay to believe that. If you’d like, you could blame the Democrats in Congress; FOX gives you permission to do so.

Putting pressure on both parties should not be the last resort. The media is censoring itself in order to paint its own picture of events for the public, and it works perfectly.

It takes two parties to run the U.S. government.

Yet, whether you blame the Democrats or the Republicans, we have become ignorant enough to blame just one.

If you truly believed only Trump and the Republicans, or even just the Democrats, were to blame for the past month, then you need to rethink your opinions.

Judging by posters and bumper stickers around campus, I assume most of you didn’t blame Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, but maybe you should have. There is no reason why you shouldn’t have.

To their credit, I understand why politicians on both sides of the aisle refused to cooperate. With 2020 closing in, both parties must secure their base and adhere to the beliefs and values that garner the most votes.

It’s a win-win for both parties. The Democrats explained that Republicans and the president refused to cooperate, and they continued to use emotionally-based arguments.

This was similar to how Democrats emphasized the children separated from their parents at the border, to make us feel that the Republicans didn’t care about immigrants and the American people.

But this backlash was nonexistent when President Barack Obama separated immigrant families, according to a May 2018 New York Times article.

Similarly, the Republicans explained that Democrats didn’t cooperate and that they didn’t care about national security.

If they did, they’d want a wall. Hence, Democrats didn’t care about the American people.

Yet, when the Democrats try to get a universal health care plan passed, the Republicans turn the other cheek and let Americans go without coverage, according to a December 2017 Washington Post article.

Nobody likes to see children fight. But when those children wear suits and dresses and live in Washington D.C., we cheer them on.