According to Laura Wilson, political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, who has shared her take on the shutdown in an interview with Sputnik, this “won’t last long.”
Sputnik: What kind of effects are we going to see from this shutdown on government operations? I mean what kind of impact is this going to have on people’s lives?
Laura Wilson: It should only affect about 25 percent of what the government does anyway. So, 75 percent truly won’t be affected. If we look at different departments, this isn’t going to affect Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, a couple of other departments as well.
And you have these “non-essential employees” — they would be the ones (deemed by government, that’s not the description that I came up with) not to come up to work. Those that are essential will have to show up, they are just not going to be paid right now […] But, it’s the 25 percent of the government, that’s a quarter of the government that is not going to be operating, and people aren’t showing up to work, services aren’t being provided, and things aren’t being done.
Sputnik: How is this affecting Donald Trump’s ratings? And we’ll also have a stock market crash at the same time.
Laura Wilson: His approval ratings as president, if you look historically… it’s not going to help them certainly. But I would say that the president has had a really strong basis throughout his campaign, inauguration, and now through his first years of administration. The people who voted and love President Trump, will continue to vote and love President Trump.
I think the bigger concern is other people who feel lukewarm and they see this: “the third government shutdown in 2018, the third of his two –year thus far administration.” That’s really problematic. We don’t want to see this as an American tradition, where we are incapable of coming together to compromise, to pay for basic needs. […] I think he will see that affect his approval and disapproval ratings.
Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Laura Wilson and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.