Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, March 1879, it's America's first government shutdown.

There we got celebrated everyone.

This is 1879, of course, in the wake of the Civil War and many of the divisions that may not have been resolved on the battlefield were kind of now playing out in Congress.

Specifically there was this question of funding for the government which was being held hostage by a small but

committed group of representatives. In this case, former Confederate generals now elected as

Democrats representing southern states.

So let's talk about the first government shutdown brinksmanship in our nation's history,

how it mirrors the showdowns that we continue to see today, and then in its own moment

how it kind of realigned a lot of those reconstruction era

politics in the wake of the Civil War.

Because in the end, I think this move did kind of backfire in a way on Southern Democrats

and we shift some lines. So here to discuss as always

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley. Hello

Jody. Hey there. So do you know when you have a like a broken bone or something and then you just notice that everyone

else seems like they have a cast too?

Like when something's happening to me, I don't know why I'm saying this but I'm saying this because I feel like.

No.

You don't think that?

Like you don't think, like you...

Maybe if I get a new car and I start to see that car everywhere the car yeah yeah please please at

...