Lee Zeldin’s rebuke of the political class was blunt and deserved: nobody who intentionally inflicts pain on American families to score political points belongs in public office. The EPA administrator — and former congressman — told conservatives exactly what millions of Americans already feel: using people’s livelihoods as “leverage” is not leadership, it’s cruelty.
The contempt from Democratic leaders has been laid bare by their own words, with top figures openly describing the shutdown’s harm as a bargaining chip. Congressional transcripts and public remarks show House and Senate Democrats admitting the shutdown gives them leverage — phrases that Republican senators and activists have rightly seized on as evidence that politics, not people, are their priority.
This is not abstract rhetorical theater; real Americans are paying the price. Millions of federal employees are missing paychecks, food assistance programs face collapse in many states, and airports and small businesses are already feeling the economic sting as services and contracts freeze up. The human toll of these manufactured crises lands hardest on the working poor and vulnerable — the very people Democrats claim to champion.
Conservatives should call this what it is: a moral failing disguised as strategy. When party operatives cheer that “every day gets better” for their leverage, they reveal a willingness to trade Americans’ security for political advantage — a choice that should cost them influence and votes. Leaders who weaponize hardship to win policy fights have shown they value power over people, and that betrayal must be answered at the ballot box.
Republicans and patriotic citizens must demand a return to common-sense governance: reopen the government, secure paychecks, and stop treating families as bargaining chips. Zeldin and others are right to call for an immediate end to this cynical calculus and to push for policies that protect both our borders and our citizens without punishing the American public. The country deserves representatives who defend Americans first, not political theater.
The choice facing voters is clear: will we tolerate a permanent political class that celebrates leverage at the expense of lives, or will we restore leadership that honors work, faith, and family? Hardworking Americans know the answer — now it’s time to act, hold the guilty to account, and elect leaders who put country over party.
