Just over 21 years ago, Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, electrified the Democratic National Convention with his keynote address. In that speech, he offered a unifying vision for this country and urged Americans not to allow themselves to be divided into “red states” and “blue states.” 

Obama asked his listeners to see parts of themselves in people with whom they had fierce political disagreements. “We worship an awesome God in the blue states,” he said, “and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states. … We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.” 

I thought of Obama’s speech when I read about President Trump’s plan to use the government shutdown to defund programs favored by Democrats and to make sure that federal money does not go to even the most worthwhile projects in blue states. In this era, Obama’s aspiration for national unity seems quaint and naïve.

Trump acknowledged that the shutdown could bring massive cuts to the federal workforce, but was quick to blame Democrats if that happened. Referring to the funding cutoff, he suggested he could “cut projects that they (Democrats) wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut.” 

These were not empty words. The administration has already stopped funding promised to states for green energy projects and halted infrastructure projects in New York and transportation projects in Chicago. If there was any doubt that the president sees himself as the leader of the Red States of America, eager to punish residents of states that did not vote for him, his response to the shutdown put that doubt to rest.  

Trump has again rejected a vision of America that long antedates Obama. Recall that America’s first president, George Washington, used his farewell address to tell his fellow Americans of his wish that “your Union and brotherly affection may be perpetual.”

But it is not only the president who seems content to divide the nation in the shutdown’s wake. We can add to that list House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). 

When asked about the president’s behavior, Johnson signaled his approval. “When they are tasked to determine what the priorities are,” he said, “obviously they are going to follow their principles and priorities and not the other team.” 

The Speaker also tried to write it off. “Is [the president] trolling the Democrats? Yes … because that’s what President Trump does, and people are having fun with this. But, at the end of the day, the decisions are tough ones.” 

Trolling? Fun? Tell that to people who lose their government jobs because they happen to work in agencies providing services valued by Democrats. Tell it to people whose states don’t receive much-needed federal aid.  

Surely, we should be able to expect more from the Speaker of the House. He would have served this country well by saying that the president should not take advantage of a difficult moment to inflict pain in blue states. Whatever happened to the idea of sharing sacrifices? Or pulling together?

Johnson’s comments point to the glaring failure of the Republican Congress to help Trump be the best president he can be. To fulfill that role, they need to be more than cheerleaders. They need to be friendly critics — the kind of people who say, “We can do better.”

Americans are so steeped in the language of checks and balances, or so put off by recent partisan rancor, that we sometimes forget the business of government is something of a joint enterprise requiring a commitment to the common good.

In fact, the people who founded this country believed that its fate would be determined by the political virtue of its leaders. As James Madison said at the Constitutional Convention, “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks — no form of government can render us secure.”

He elaborated on that belief in Federalist No. 10, stating that the job of our representatives in Congress was “to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.” 

I fear that Johnson has forgotten Madison’s words.  

It is bad enough that Trump is responding to the government shutdown by setting out to prove that Obama is wrong, that we are not “one people.” But he should not be cheered on in that effort by people whose high station requires wisdom, patriotism and the love of justice. 

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.