Rob Schmitt ripped into a Democrat congresswoman this week after she defended the party’s decision to keep the federal government closed as a political stunt, calling her explanation obnoxious and, frankly, despicable. He didn’t mince words when he said, “That’s why they shut down the entire freaking government — to show their side of an argument over spending,” and hardworking Americans watching know what that naked political cynicism looks like.
Make no mistake: this wasn’t about policy or principle, it was performance art for a radical base that cares more about optics than paying people and protecting services. As neutral reporting has shown, lawmakers on both sides admit brinksmanship and base pressure are driving these fights, not a sober effort to keep the lights on for the American people.
The cost of that posturing lands squarely on federal workers, military families, and ordinary citizens who depend on government services — the very people Democrats pretend to champion. Republicans repeatedly offered stopgap measures that would protect paychecks and essential functions, while Democrats dug in to leverage the chaos into policy wins, and the result is chaos and hurt for Americans who can least afford it.
For the left, shutdowns have become a bargaining chip to demand pet projects, open-borders giveaways, and climate and foreign aid riders that have nothing to do with keeping government running. It is a shocking betrayal of voters when elected officials choose fundraising and radical policy lists over the livelihoods of taxpayers and workers.
Patriots should be grateful that voices like Schmitt’s are calling out this garbage for what it is: pure political theater at the expense of real people. Conservatives must expose the Democrats’ gambit, force the record into the light, and keep reminding voters which party would rather score social-media points than reopen the doors of government.
If Republicans stand firm and keep pressing the truth — that this is a manufactured crisis used to appease the far left — then we can turn this outrage into accountability at the ballot box. Americans who work for a living must never forget who shut the government down and why, and they should take that memory to the ballot box and to their representatives until Congress starts working for the country again.
