Over a decade ago, my dad took his Honor Flight to Washington DC. He’s a World War II veteran. His escort was my active-duty son. Great memories for both of them. They did the National Monument tour, seeing the World War II monument, Arlington National Cemetary, et al. They just missed the government shutdown of the National Parks, including the unmanned World War II memorial.
The president at the time was Barack Obama. He ordered the closure of the nation's parks including areas that didn’t need to be shut down. It was in response to a standoff with the GOP on the budget. The shutdown Included the memorial that my dad and son saw together. They missed it by a few weeks.
It’s called Washington Monument Syndrome.
That’s shorthand for the way federal agencies react to any threat of budget cuts or a government shutdown: by closing down the most popular public services.
No one has mastered this better than President Obama.
Which explains the dramatic — and wholly unnecessary — confrontation Tuesday at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. Faced with signs saying the memorial was closed, war vets rightly pushed past makeshift gates and barricades to make their visit.
That there were barricades at all underscores the phony politics at work.
The Republicans were willing to fund the national parks to avoid the ridiculous closures but Obama, and the Democrats needed a "Republicans killed the puppies" moment. Ever the showman, Obama would have none of it. He wanted the optics of closed parks to shame the GOP into doing what he wanted - fund the government and bend the knee to his bidding. The GOP rolled.
Twelve years ago it worked, at least from an optics standpoint and as a pressure point. Twelve years ago, Republicans typically shrank and caved to pressure and optics. The tactic had a name.
The Washington Monument Syndrome.
Before Donald Trump was elected, he vowed to reduce government spending. Part of the process is reducing the federal workforce. Cuts in payroll are common in business. Not so much in government. Often just the opposite. Government employment usually means lifetime employment. Not so much in 2025. But as Trump and his team begin making cuts in the bloated federal workforce, Democrats are resurrecting a version of the Washington Monument Syndrome. This time, in lieu of barriers to keep World War II veterans from visiting a memorial, a federal bureaucrat will fire the only person with the keys to the kingdom.
In Yosemite National Park, the “only” guy with keys was terminated.
RedState’s Streiff wrote about this yesterday. The Washington Post and New York Times had blaring headlines lamenting that loss of federal personnel – highlighting that someone was locked in a crapper because the only locksmith in Yosemite was terminated. The logical fallacy was ignored by the Time and the Post. Both articles quoted by Streiff illustrated what pain Trump would inflict with cuts in manpower – particularly terminating the only locksmith at Yosemite. The horror.
Nate Vince went to social media. The locksmith is worried, not just for himself but for future persons locked in crappers. Who will hold the keys to the crapper kingdom without Vince at the ready?
“We have endless things that need to be secured in various forms, and I’m the sole keeper of those keys, the one that makes the keys, the one that fixes the locks, installs the locks, and has all that knowledge of the security behind the park. And so it’s a critical role. And without it, everyone else in the park is handicapped,” Vince told the Post.
What is the fallacy? Vince has a compelling horror story – someone being locked in a pooper and only Nate could get them out. But the reality is, Vince isn’t omnipresent. Vince takes breaks - to Half Dome and the like. Vince has days off. Vince will go on vacations – so who takes over for the holder of the kingdom's keys? There has to be someone. Did Vince sleep with a couple hundred keys dangling from his belt?
Streiff wrote:
I appreciate National Parks as much as the next guy, and I'd be one of the last to gloat over some working-class guy losing his job, but nothing in these two articles makes a case for the continued existence of these lost jobs. Taking reservations for historic homes at Gettysburg sounds like the quintessential contractor operation, likewise, with clearing hiking trails through a National Forest.
So too with Yosemite’s holder of the toilet keys. Nate Vince’s Instagram is loaded with photos of him on Half Dome and other sheer-face cliffs, including the one below. I’m not sure who held the toilet keys while Vince was getting paid to “Ride out the storm on the Cyclops Eye.”
Vince lost a great job. I suspect he thought he'd spend the rest of his adult life in a National Park, getting paid to play and occasionally rescue a visitor locked in a pooper.
Sorry you lost your paid-to-play job. The good news - you have a marketable skill. You’ll get another job, just not one that pays to climb Half Dome. You might have to show up to do work now.
What new syndrome will the left market to gin up sympathy for rock-climbing locksmiths?
Will the left use something like “Trump Killed all the Puppies Syndrome?” Catchy - right?