The Statue of Liberty looms over visitors below on Liberty Island in New York Harbor on Sunday, October 13. The statue was closed to the public by the federal government's partial shutdown that began October 1, but reopened Sunday after the state of New York agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the shutdown. Many government services and agencies remain completely or partially closed. 
The main entrance to Grand Canyon National Park remains closed to visitors in Grand Canyon, Arizona, on Thursday, October 10. Under pressure from several governors, the Obama administration said Thursday it will allow some shuttered national parks to reopen, as long as states use their own money to pay for park operations. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and state legislative leaders have said they would make state funding available. 
Empty tables overlooking Seal Rocks are seen inside the closed Cliff House on Wednesday, October 9, in San Francisco. The 150-year-old oceanside icon was ordered closed by the National Park Service for the duration of the partial government shutdown, leaving most of the restaurant's 170 employees without work. 
Boaters gather to protest the closure of Everglades National Park waters on October 9 near Islamorada, Florida. About a third of the 2,380-square-mile park encompasses Florida Bay and has been closed to Florida Keys guides and recreational fishermen since October 1. 
A camping party at the Dolly Copp campground in Gorham, New Hampshire, on October 9 is told that the park will close on Thursday, October 10, at noon. The privately run campground in New Hampshire's White Mountains National Forest was forced to close ahead of the lucrative Columbus Day weekend because of the federal government shutdown. 
Rick Hohensee holds a "Fire Congress" sign near the House steps on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, October 8. 
Officers stand at the base of stairs leading to the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, October 7. 
A bull elk appears to stick out its tongue at the closed north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Montana on October 7 in a photo submitted by iReporter Brad Orsted. Orsted joked the animal was giving its opinion on the government shutdown. 
Tourists take photos at a barricade blocking access to the World War II Memorial in Washington on Sunday, October 6. 
River runners make camp in a dirt parking lot in Marble Canyon, Arizona, after being unable to access the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry on Saturday, October 5. 
A closure sign is posted on the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday, October 3. 
Metal gates closed with a chain block the entrance to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, in Kennesaw, Georgia on Thursday, October 3. A sign posted on the gates announces the park's closure, citing the government shutdown. 
Tourists take photos of the Statue of Liberty while riding a tour boat in New York Harbor on October 3. The statue is adminstered by the National Park Service and is closed as a result of the government shutdown. 
A single security guard patrols the closed Lincoln Memorial in Washington on October 3. 
A U.S. Capitol police officer walks past a statue of Gerald Ford in the rotunda on Tuesday, October 1. The Capitol is closed to tours because of the government shutdown. 
Barricades around the World War II Memorial in Washington prevent people from entering the monument on October 1. The memorial was temporary opened to veteran groups who arrived on Honor Flights on a day trip to visit the nation's capital. 
World War II veteran Russell Tucker of Meridian, Mississippi, stands outside the barricade as he visits the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1. 
World War II Veteran George Bloss, from Gulfport, Mississippi, looks out over the National World War II Memorial in Washington, on October 1. Veterans who had traveled from across the country were allowed to visit the National World War II Memorial after it had been officially closed because of the partial government shutdown. 
A park ranger secures a road at the entrance to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on October 1 in Keystone, South Dakota. 
A sign is posted in the window of an IRS office in Brooklyn notifying that the office is closed due to the government shutdown on October 1. 
A visitor takes a picture of a sign announcing the closure of the Fort Point National Historic Site due to the partial government shutdown on October 1 in San Francisco, California. 
A hand-written sign informs visitors to Faneuil Hall, the nation's oldest public meeting hall, that restrooms are closed as a result of the partial government shutdown in Boston, on October 1. 
Visitors to Independence National Historical Park are reflected in the window of the closed building housing the Liberty Bell, on October 1 in Philadelphia. 
Mark Weekley, superintendent at the National Park Service's Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail, puts up a sign proclaiming the facility closed due to the federal government shutdown, in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 1. 
Hot Springs National Park employee Stacy Jackson carries a barricade while closing Arlington Lawn in Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas on October 1. 
The Washington Monument is seen behind a chain fence in Washington, on October 1. 
A National Park Service ranger finishes putting up a sign indicating all facilities at the Martin Luther King Historic Site are closed to the public in Atlanta, on October 1. 
A Capitol police officer walks through the empty Capitol Rotunda, closed to tours during the government shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, on October 1. 
An employee at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Massachusetts, puts up a sign on October 1, to notify visitors that the site is closed because of a government shutdown. 
A U.S. Park Service police officer stands at the closed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. 
A man looks into the closed Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington on October 1. 
A National Parks Service ranger posts a sign on the doors of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on October 1 notifying visitors that the church is closed. 
A U.S. park ranger places a closed sign on a barricade in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington on October 1. 
Park police and Park Service employees close down the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall on October 1. 
A sign informs visitors that the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial, west of Paris, is closed because of the shutdown on October 1. 
A man walks past a sign noting the closure at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Valley View, Ohio, on October 1. 
Members of the U.S. National Park Service close the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. 
A U.S. park ranger posts a closed sign at the Lincoln Memorial on October 1. 
A sign alerting visitors that the National Gallery of Art is closed stands outside the building on October 1. 
People look at a sign announcing that the Statue of Liberty is closed in New York on October 1. 
Fencing around the World War II Memorial prevents people from entering the monument on the National Mall in Washington on October 1. 
Signs taped on museum doors alert visitors that the National Museum of American History in Washington is closed on October 1. 
A U.S. park service police officer stands guard at the entrance of the closed Lincoln Memorial on October 1. 
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- Julian Zelizer: Liberal complaints about the tactics of the right accomplish nothing
- He says liberals should be looking for ways to pressure GOP members in their districts
- If GOP can normalize shutdowns, it will use tactic again and again, he says
- Zelizer: Moderate Republicans might help push back against conservatives
Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America."
(CNN) -- Liberals need to stop complaining about the right.
In recent weeks, the chorus of criticism emanating from liberals has been intensifying, focusing on how right-wing Republicans have shut down the government and are threatening the global economy.
Many observers agree with this criticism, including a number of Republicans who are also frustrated with their own party. A recent Pew poll showed that support for the GOP has plummeted since September.
But simply criticizing congressional intransigence never goes very far in Washington politics. Liberals who rail against the right are unlikely to accomplish much. The 40 or so conservative Republicans who have been controlling the House Caucus don't really care what liberals in Washington have to say. Even if some House Republican politicians are listening to their critics, most of the short-term electoral incentives are pushing them in a different direction than Democrats hope.
If liberals want to bring change and truly alter the political dynamics in Washington, they are going to need to build grass-roots pressure to shape national debate and genuine electoral pressure in the states and districts of Republicans who are not among the hard-core of the right-wing -- still a majority of the GOP.
Political scientist Matthew Green estimates that there are 48 Republicans in the "fearful caucus," who are not in the hard "no" faction but whose primary concern is being at risk in a primary challenge. There are 29 Republicans who are loyal to the House leadership, and 17 more in districts won by President Barack Obama who are interested in a compromise.
Thus far, it has been striking during the federal government shutdown to see the relative inaction of the left in terms of mounting actual grass-roots pressure on legislators to reopen the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with budgetary disputes through the normal paths of the legislative process.
Although the budgetary process is not an issue that has the same urgency as immigration reform or climate change, the stakes of continuing with this kind of budget politics are enormously consequential.
The more that Republicans can normalize the decision to shut down the federal government, the more comfortable they will be in disputes to do this again.
If they are willing to go to the length of actually sending the government into default over health care, they will use this kind of threat in future policy disputes.
Republicans, to some extent, are comfortable with this outcome. They have been warning about the ills of government for decades, so this kind of breakdown fits well within their broader narrative. Liberals need government to work, as they believe that government is an essential part of a fair and just society.
In the past, liberals have scored their biggest breakthroughs against congressional conservatism through grass-roots pressure. Between the late 1930s and the early 1960s, a conservative alliance of Southern Democrats and Midwestern Republicans held up progress on legislation meant to benefit African-Americans, union members and Americans living in the cities.
Since Southern Democrats chaired many of the major committees, they were able to prevent bills from coming up for a vote or they forced legislation to be so watered down by the time of passage that it was ineffective. In the Senate, they could use the filibuster on bills such as civil rights to ensure that bold measures did not come up for a vote.
During the early 1960s, liberals were finally able to break the hold of this conservative coalition through a massive and dramatic grass-roots mobilization, spearheaded by the civil rights movement. This changed national opinion and created electoral pressure on Midwestern Republicans to break ranks with their Southern counterparts.
During the 1980s, liberals faced similar problems.
After the 1980 election, President Ronald Reagan allied with the newly Republican Senate and an expanded conservative coalition in the House to push through major legislation, such as the historic tax cut of 1981, that took away revenue the federal government badly needed and made the tax code less progressive.
Reagan also obtained a huge increase in the defense budget and undertook an aggressive shift in foreign policy that heightened tensions with the Soviet Union. His team avoided negotiations with the Soviets and insisted on a build-up of intercontinental missiles in Europe. But liberals pushed back.
When Reagan proposed cuts to Social Security in 1981, House Democrats worked with organizations and citizen groups allied with the elderly to stop this in its tracks. During the 1982 midterms, liberals focused on "fairness" in the economy and blamed Reagan's policies for the economic recession.
In 1983 and 1984, the millions of Americans involved in the nuclear freeze movement generated immense support for the need to reduce international tensions and created the framework for negotiations that started in 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev emerged on the scene. A new book by historian Michael Foley, "Front Porch Politics," shows how grass-roots activists in this period participated in a wide range of protests on issues such as industrial policies for depressed areas to gay rights.
Liberals have an opportunity to influence the political debate. An unusual alliance is possible.
First, liberals will find support from Republicans who care about the party's national standing and are unhappy with the polls reflecting the public's discontent with House GOP tactics. Second, a growing number of leaders in the business community are starting to consider the possibility of funding primary challengers to hard-right Republicans whose policy demands are threatening the economy.
But liberals will have to be part of the equation of isolating the far right politically by building pressure in swing states, generating support for Democrats who push back against these kinds of tactics, staging protests, holding marches and meeting with constituents in states where Republican politicians will feel pressed to moderate the ways of their party.
Conservatives have been quick to turn to protest politics, such as the recent protests at Washington monuments, so there is no reason liberals should be hesitant to do the same, although they will need to do so on a much larger scale. Without that kind of grass-roots pressure from liberals, the current stalemate is likely to be the new normal.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.
