It also bothers me because I think we have redefined the level of acceptable dysfunctionality of government . The Republican Congress flat out REFUSED to do their job of approving or disapproving of Barack Obama ' s Supreme Court Justice nominee . It wasn ' t that they didn ' t hold a hearing and unanimously declined him . They just did not do their job . They came up with a bullshit excuse and it ' s actually going to pay off . I almost think of this is a bigger sign of how much trouble we are in . Yes , Trump could set America back 30 plus years with no sign of recovery for an additional 30 years . However , I think the bigger issue we have is that we have reached a point where the government can just decided not to work and nobody can or will hold them accountable .