During the 2013 government shutdown I happened to be in Philadelphia, and I was surprised to find that the Liberty Bell — which sits in its own little room with big windows — was “closed.” You could stand there and look at it, but only through tourist-smudged glass.

This time around, the Liberty Bell Center and other buildings that are part of Independence National Historical Park are closed again. But the National Park Service makes a point of saying that they “remain as accessible as possible,” while Philadelphia’s tourism bureau helpfully notes that “the Liberty Bell can still be viewed through a window on the east side of its building.”

It’s a small but telling difference between this shutdown and previous ones. In the past, the public has blamed the shutdown on the opposition party

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