There is a sadness to brinksmanship: a hollow feeling to the intransigence that this month brought the United States government to a close. To some, it was a moral calling—the need to preserve an idea about the size of government. But this idea was always an illusion, senators asking us to trust a global surveillance apparatus but not a program that preserves the dignity of sick Americans. These images from Faheem Haider grapple with the empty aftermath.