The Stakes Behind the Shutdown: Power, Pressure, and the Future of Governance
The U.S. political landscape is haemorrhaging credibility this October. With Congress failing—again—to pass funding legislation, the country is entering a second week of full-blown government shutdown. But what’s happening is more than just political theatre: we are witnessing a redefinition of how power is wielded in this era of hyper-polarization. What’s going on? The federal government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on October 1, 2025 , after both Republican and Democratic proposals to extend funding failed in the Senate. What’s different this time: the Trump administration is not just furloughing workers (temporarily placing many nonessential employees on unpaid leave), but executing “reductions in force” (RIFs) —i.e. permanent layoffs. Over 4,000 federal workers across seven agencies have already received layoff notices in the early rounds of RIFs (Treasury, HHS, Education among them). The White House is freezing funding...
