A thought: the actor Ed Lauter's passing is metaphor for America...
If you peruse the IMDb of Mr. Lauter you can see that he was virtually omnipresent in American film and television for decades. Anyone who was an aficionado of series TeeVee or films whose protagonists were law enforcement, military, or sports figures knew his face, although few knew his name. In retrospect, he was truly a great actor, for he filled his roles convincingly and there was no doubt that his characters were instantly believed as such by the audience.
He essentially plied his craft in the background and was a stalwart and reliable individual for the viewer and the producers and directors. His work made the whole product successful.
So it is with Government: it operates more or less in a predictable fashion at the bureaucratic level, gives the people what they expect reasonably on time and reasonably prudently when called upon in emergencies (presuming its leader is not celebrating birthdays and playing the guitar when, for example, a Category 5 hurricane sweeps in), and, most importantly, is sorely missed when it is non-functioning.
This is once again what Americans discovered during the past few weeks. And this is once again what the Republicans forgot.
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