Independent Voters decided Republicans couldn't be trusted to govern after 1995-6 shutdown

While the shutdown was under way, it wasn’t immediately clear who the public would hold responsible. Subsequent accounts, LaTourette noted, reported that the White House was just as worried as the Republicans in Congress about suffering political consequences. But in the end, he said, independent voters concluded from the crisis that the GOP couldn’t be trusted to govern. “We took the worse end of the public backlash -- [it was] ‘Why can’t you guys play nice?’” LaTourette said. Gingrich was famously depicted as a tantrum-throwing toddler on the cover of the New York Daily News, under the headline, "CRY BABY."
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Would a Government Shutdown Really Be All That Bad for ...

The 1995-6 Government shutdowns led to a landslide re-election victory for Bill Clinton.