The ongoing government shutdown is officially the longest in US history, and there seems to be no end in sight. Historically, shutdowns are put into effect when either Congress fails to pass a spending bill, or when the President refuses to sign it. In this case, it’s the latter. President Trump won’t budge until a deal on funding for his border wall is made, and the Democrats won’t let that be a part of the federal budget.

Like many Americans, I do have a strong opinion on the current state of the shutdown and how it’s affecting the country. Most of what I know is from the news I watch on TV and read on my phone, so in order to explain my opinions more fully, I did some extra research.

I found the term “shutdown” to be slightly misleading. Government-controlled sectors including airports, the postal service, and veterans’ hospitals — classified as essential services and slated to remain open — mean Randy the TSA agent still has to show up for work. But he won’t get paid for it.

More than 800,000 unpaid government employees are still required to report to work, receiving pay stubs that actually read “Net Pay: $0.00.” As I watch the news at home, I’ve listened to several stories of single parents trying to provide for their children because their food stamp allowance was cut, or young couples struggling to pay mortgage. One story in particular struck me. An elderly blue-collar government worker, describing himself as a Trump supporter, said that he thought Trump had done good things for the country; however, after being furloughed, he didn’t seem to think so anymore.

Trump has made statements saying that most of those without pay would “agree 100% with what I’m doing.” In AP human geography last year, we learned about Tobler’s First Law, which says “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” Basically, people are more likely to worry about events happening geographically closer to them, as well as events that affect their own lives more directly. A Washington Post article I read mentioned that outside the D.C. area, the states where workers are most affected by the shutdown are Alaska, and Montana, and nearly 14% of the 800,000 affected make less than $50,000 a year. The proposed wall would run along the borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. So, why would the workers in those heavily affected states care about a border wall that is so far away from them spatially, especially since their primary concern now is struggling to make ends meet?

Those affected that have expressed their discontentment with the situation seem to reach the same point. Trump wants his border wall to supposedly protect the US from illegal immigrants, but the inability of both sides to reach a compromise is causing an even bigger problem by furloughing hundreds of thousands.

The estimated cost for the wall is said to be around $20 billion, should the wall be built. Construction could take several years, lasting well beyond the Trump years. If this shutdown lasts for even twice as long as the 16-day shutdown during the Obama administration (which cost the government $2.1 billion), it could potentially be a fifth of the cost that the government would “lose,” which brings me to another topic.

During his rallies before election day, what did Trump frequently promise his eager crowd? A border wall — that Mexico would pay for. That seemed to take care of his supporters’ worries about how he’d be able to get the funds to pay for it for the time being. But, of course, we don’t see any sign of that actually happening … because you know, the government is shut down due to a lack of funds on our part. It almost seems like this is his frantic attempt to secure more votes in 2020 by at least attempting to put a plan for the wall in place — so he could later remark “promises made, promises kept” to his steadfast base.

The main issue I find especially problematic is the politics of the situation. Yes, a border wall raises a pertinent issue of national security, but it’s been turned into a partisan one, and frankly, it compromises some of the more pressing problems attacking our nation today. The wall itself aligns more closely with Trump’s own agenda rather than the interests of the majority, and a partial shutdown put into place solely to advance his own ideas is just simply wrong.

In his famed Farewell Address, George Washington advised against political parties. Abraham Lincoln famously remarked, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” This is exactly the type of situation the Founding Fathers and other leaders feared — a deadlock due to conflict of interest. Do we forgo the needs of thousands of hardworking federal employees for something that may or may not benefit the American people in the long run? More importantly, I hope that this issue is resolved as soon as possible, and I hope that a fair, compromising, and bipartisan balance that we’ve strove to achieve for so long can help end it.