This past week, the Democrats and a handful of far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to reject Speaker McCarthy's government stop-gap funding bill. The end result will be a government shutdown unless Speaker McCarthy can figure out a deal with Democrats, who are in lock step refusing to work with the Republican majority.

In the US Senate, Democrats passed a budget that they know will never see the light of day on the House Floor. In short, there are three ways for this to be resolved.

1. Speaker McCarthy Resigns
   This is ultimately a fight between a small handful of conservatives with balls of steel and Speaker McCarthy, who they view as too moderate and eager to cave to Joe Biden's White House. Unfortunately, if Speaker McCarthy resigned, it stands to reason that a new speaker would be further to the right. While Republicans might pass a budget, the odds of that budget being reconciled with the Democrats in the US Senate and not vetoed by President Biden would plummet.
2. Speaker McCarthy Works with Democrats
   This would trigger a revolt among a great many more rank-and-file Republicans in the House, and probably bolster Trump's 2024 campaign as angry Republicans are more likely to gravitate towards someone who is hated by Washington, D.C.
3. Speaker McCarthy Allows a Vote on the Democrat's Senate Bill
   It's difficult to imagine McCarthy allowing a vote on a bill without the members of the house being able to vote on amendments and add additional pork to the bill. However, it would put pressure on Democrats to vote Yes and there are more than likely enough Republicans eager to avoid a shutdown who would vote for it. Again, this would embolden the Trump-clan, but not as bad as working with Democrats. It also has the benefit of possibly failing and being able to shift the blame for the shutdown from the GOP to Democrats, who wouldn't even vote Yes on their own party's bill.

This shutdown showdown would likely have been avoided if there were more than two major political parties. Even a dozen Libertarians, Greens, or Christian Conservatives would enable deals to be made with other parties without coming across as a complete sellout. These government shutdowns that happen far too frequently in the United States are far less common in Parliamentary systems where parties are awarded seats based on how many votes they get, not just who wins a district. If Libertarians win 5% of the national vote, they might get about 5% of the seats in Parliament. If you're a Libertarian, you wouldn't be throwing your vote away by voting for a Libertarian and you're going to be actually represented in the national government.

Instead, we create this bitter situation where even if you hate both Republican and Democrat candidates for an office, you're going to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils or throw your vote away on a third party candidate to express your displeasure with the choices: a message which will never be heard.

And before you say, "the government shutting down will be good for America," the government WILL be funded at some point. When that happens, every federal worker will get back pay and probably get bonuses for working overtime to catch up on everything they didn't do on their prolonged vacation. A shutdown will only delay and further increase the federal debt.

Plus, you thought those federal border agents had their hands tied before, just wait until they're told to go home and pray the politicians figure out how to give them their next paycheck.

Shutdowns are ugly.