The people in Congress who are sponsoring the current government shutdown — and also were responsible for the congressional dysfunction for the last two years — hope the rest of us are enjoying the results as much as they are. Everywhere you look there are things you can point to that connect directly to this well-thought-out shutdown, whether the convenience of finding no crowds at national parks or the pleasure of knowing the meat you eat hasn’t been tampered with by nosy inspectors. Oh sure, a few people are complaining — like the teenager who can’t get his bone marrow transplant, or the restaurant that’s slowly going out of business — but really, nothing’s perfect, right?

The rest of us know that there is a small group of congressmen who see the shutdown as a moral principle enacted, initially because it kept us from the Affordable Care Act (with a name like that, who wouldn’t oppose it?) and lately because they can’t remember why. We shouldn’t be surprised, because when you look at this small group of congressmen who represent a small group of Americans, you see some fascinating people — really, all white, older and sharing curiously similar intellectual traits. Well, to be accurate, let’s drop the “intellectual” and stick with “curious traits.”

All of them are high school graduates, so let’s not hear anything about stunted educational growth. They all have a healthy (possibly unhealthy) lack of knowledge of and respect for science. They love freedom and the American way, as long as it affects only certain Americans. They especially love wealthy people, no matter their background, because they are “makers” not “takers.”

That’s perhaps why Rep. Steve King, the mind-bending Iowan, could tell us recently that for every immigrant who has been a valedictorian “there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” Only the Border Patrol knows for sure. King, you might remember, has a distinguished record that includes opposing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina (they were poor to start with, so what’s the point?), devoting time and energy to demands for President Obama’s birth certificate, and insisting that the sea level isn’t going to rise because of global warming since “we don’t even know where sea level is.”

Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert is another stalwart of the shutdown, and his record affirms the belief that “all climate change data is fraudulent.” He sponsored a bill to allow every taxpayer a two-month break from paying income taxes, a quasi-populist move that no one else seemed to think a wise idea.

Then there’s Florida Rep. Ted Yoho — don’t you love saying his name out loud? — and Rep. Fruitcake Michele Bachman, and …. well, we could go on, but these are among the leaders of the congressional people who know the shutdown isn’t affecting anyone and will rescue the rest of us from the Affordable Care Act. Who wants affordable health care anyway?

So, we know the people responsible for giving us a shutdown and government chaos. A grand bunch they are. And a bunch who are incredibly easy to satirize and poke fun at their infinite shortcomings. But then, really, there’s so much we don’t know. We don’t know the people who back home in Iowa, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and other places who voted to put these uninformed, unprincipled and uncaring people into office. We don’t know them at all, only that they represent a small part of the American electorate who have gained a disproportionate voice in government, ironically too, because they don’t seem to like government. And who believe they don’t need it. The buffoons in the Congress are like that proverbial iceberg — the tip that conceals the real dangers below and out of sight. More on that at another time.