Washington’s political theater reached a new low last week as Democrats openly gamed a bitter government shutdown to try to pin the blame on President Trump and the Republican Party. Rob Finnerty was right to call Tuesday “a wake-up call” for the GOP — this is not merely a policy fight, it’s a calculated attempt by the left to manufacture turnout and smear patriots who put America first.
For thirty-one days Americans watched federal services grind and families worry while partisan operatives played politics with SNAP benefits and federal paychecks. Congressional Republicans on Newsmax warned that Democrats were sitting on a clean continuing resolution until after the elections, a cynical decision that punished the vulnerable and tried to turn anger into votes.
The result on Election Day was a bitter lesson: Democrats swept the marquee races in Virginia and New Jersey, flipping the governorship in Richmond and delivering New Jersey to Mikie Sherrill. These defeats sting, but they must be understood in context — Democrats used every institutional advantage and a nationalized narrative about the shutdown to paint Republicans as the cause of everyday pain.
Polling after the votes confirmed the problem: too many voters blamed the president and Republicans for the funding stalemate, even though it was Democrats who repeatedly blocked a clean stopgap and hinted they’d reopen government only after the ballots were counted. If the GOP wants to stop losing these fights, it cannot let the narrative be set by the left’s media machine or by self-defeating noise from inside our own ranks.
Republicans also need to stop treating President Trump like an addiction and start treating him like a strategic advantage. Finnerty’s warning about a “Trump hangover” isn’t a call to abandon our champion — it’s a blunt demand that the party sober up, organize a proper ground game, and sell conservative wins on the economy, crime, and secure borders instead of surrendering the messaging battlefield.
Meanwhile, Democrats proved once again they will weaponize suffering to feed the ballot box, and insiders like Mark Meadows and members of the GOP rightly pointed out that the left’s unreasonableness could cost them in close places — if Republicans get their act together and hold the line. We should call out every cynical move, rally the base, and make clear to voters that the GOP fights for Americans’ livelihoods, not political stunts.
This moment should harden conservative resolve, not spark internecine finger-pointing. Work harder, recruit better candidates, show up in the suburbs, and make the positive case for limited government and individual liberty that actually improves people’s lives. If Republicans learn from this and refuse to be bullied by the media or the left’s dark tactics, patriots across the country will be ready to retake the narrative and win the fights that matter in 2026 and beyond.
