The United States government has shut down for the first time in 17 years. A small group of Republicans absolutely opposed to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the signature legislative achievement of President Barack Obama's first term in office, believe that they can force the president to abandon or delay launch of the plan, and they are willing to shut down the government to accomplish that objective.

It is an anti-democratic spectacle unworthy of the U.S., yet one that looks set to drag on for some time.

Opposition to the ACA has mounted over time. Despite more than a year of debate, the passage of the bill by both houses of Congress and its approval by the Supreme Court, a hard core of GOP members refuse to accept its legitimacy. For them, it is socialism, the destroyer of the U.S. health care system, the bankrupter of the U.S. economy, or another entitlement that will destroy the moral fiber of the American people.