What do you have to say about reps not even trying to come to the table for negotiations [during the government shutdown]?

Simple: there was no table to come to.

Let’s get one thing straight — Republicans didn’t shut down the government. Democrats did. That’s not a talking point; it’s a fact I’ve already explained in detail. Democrats made a choice — a calculated, political one — to close down the government, create chaos, and then turn around and point fingers.

Why? Because they’re out of ideas. Out of leadership. Out of anything resembling a vision that connects with everyday Americans. So what’s left? Political theater. Manufactured crisis. Cable news drama.

If Democrats truly wanted to negotiate, they could’ve done the simplest thing imaginable: keep the government open. But that didn’t fit the script. They needed a scene — a spectacle — to distract from their own failures.

Republicans made it clear from the start: they’d come to the table once the government was open. That’s called being responsible. You don’t reward reckless behavior with more attention — you wait until the grown-ups are back in charge.

So yes, this whole mess was avoidable. Completely. But when politics takes priority over people, this is what we get.

Now that the government appears to be reopening, we’ll see if Democrats are ready to act like adults and actually govern. Because if they’re not serious by January 30, we might be right back here again — watching the same bad play, with the same tired actors, performing for the same applause from their rabid political base.

Conservative, not bitter.
Todd