Is Representative Scott Tipton to Blame for Government Shutdown?

Those of you who thought either President Donald Trump or the Democratic members of Congress were responsible for the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, now in its 28th day, are wrong. Incredibly wrong.

Wrong according to The Onion, at least. America's finest (satirical) news source points the finger directly at U.S. Representative Scott Tipton, of all people.

A fresh Onion offering headlined "Poll Finds 100% Of Americans Blame Shutdown Entirely On Colorado Representative Scott Tipton" maintains that a survey conducted by Pew Research shows that the public thinks the inaction of the Republican rep from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District is why thousands of government workers are currently going without their paychecks.

Note this explanation from "lead researcher Michelle Sanger": "As far as the American people are concerned, Tipton and Tipton alone owns this shutdown. And the more he continues to foist blame on others, the deeper the animus against him will grow. This will go down in the history books as the Tipton shutdown."

If so, that means Tipton will be remembered for something. Since his election in 2010, he's mainly been known as a rubber stamp for whatever position the GOP leadership holds at any given moment — which is one reason he was seen as potentially vulnerable during the run-up to the 2018 election.

But the political demographics in CD3, which encompasses significant chunks of western, southwestern and southern Colorado, including communities such as Grand Junction and Pueblo, appear not to have shifted as dramatically as those in other parts of the state. Despite a strong challenge from Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush, Tipton survived the blue electoral wave last November, topping Bush by a fairly comfortable 51-43 percent margin.

Since returning to Washington, D.C., Tipton has done...not much, which is likely why the Onion picked him to be the shutdown's comic scapegoat. It's funny because something close to 100 percent of Americans have no idea who the hell he is.

Click to read the Onion post.