Politics Missed the Message of Christmas

Modern politicians would do well to follow America’s Founding Fathers.

The 2025 Christmas season has arguably been overshadowed and affected by the record-breaking 43 days of politicking that brought the government to a grinding halt and caused 670,000 civilian federal employees to be furloughed and 730,000 more forced to work without pay.  Even worse, 1.3 million active-duty service members and more than 750,000 National Guard and Reserve members were required to serve, also mostly without pay during the shutdown.

If the Trump administration had not re-allocated funds to pay active-duty troops on October 14 and 31, they would have been unpaid for the first time in history on November 14 because of a government shutdown.

No Christmas Spirit in Shutdown

Two weeks into the shutdown, Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-WI) introduced the Shutdown Fairness Act with 13 Republican co-sponsors. It would have immediately paid federal workers during a lapse in appropriations, and it would have been retroactively effective to the first day of the shutdown – October 1. But Democrats opposed it, and the bill did not meet the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.

Worse, Democrats knew the pain this was causing Americans during the holidays, as they continued to beat the party drum that it was the Donald Trump Shutdown.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) appeared on Meet the Press on November 9 – almost three weeks before Thanksgiving. He was asked if it was responsible for Democrats to continue to push for a better deal on health care and keep the government shutdown while people were suffering in that moment – and if Democrats could end the shutdown before Thanksgiving. He answered:

“I hope so. Well, Donald Trump needs to get off the golf course and get back to the negotiating table. He spent more time golfing over the last several weeks than he has talking to Democrats, who represent half the country, as part of an effort to find a bipartisan path forward.”

Every one of his answers started with an attack on Republicans and Donald Trump, including when asked about Trump’s proposal to give the subsidies to the American people to buy their own health care.

In the end, enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster voted to open the government without a vote to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which makes one wonder if that was really their goal.

MTG

Just as the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies appear to have been the Democrats’ ruse to play politics with Americans’ paychecks, so were the Epstein files Georgia US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used to get even with President Trump and kowtow to the left for votes in a possible run for statewide office..

Greene appears to be holding a grudge against Trump for showing her private poll results indicating she did not have the support to win a statewide election. But rather than citing the polling data, Greene said in May she would not run for Senate because of her dislike of the “uni-party,” and the Senate institution. Likewise, she announced in July that she would not run for governor – not due to polling data – but because of her intent to focus on her district and her disdain for the “good ole boy” system in Georgia. Just four months later, she announced she was resigning from Congress as of January 5, 2026. So much for focusing on her district.

But that was not before breaking with President Trump during the government shutdown to support extending the ACA enhanced subsidies, criticizing Trump for meeting with Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, and joining the Democrats and three other Republicans to sign a discharge petition to force a vote to release the Epstein files. There was also a parade of interviews with left-wing media outlets: CNN on October 8, November 6, and November 16; CBS’ 60 Minutes on December 7; and the far-left gripe show The View on November 4, as well as an upcoming appearance scheduled for January 7, 2026 – two days after she leaves Congress. Notably, Greene was respectful with the hosts of The View and confrontational with CBS’ Lesley Stahl, even as she apologized for her toxic politics.

In sum, Greene’s behavior was less about righteous grievances against President Trump and her Republican colleagues in the House, and more about politicking to convince people of her conversion to promote herself – without the people, like the president, who supported her. Trump’s endorsement of Greene may have been her undoing, as in the end, it turned out that a little tough love from the president about polling turned into her unique strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

American politics in 2025 missed the Christmas spirit altogether. By contrast, many of America’s Founding Fathers were known for their devout faith and observance of Christmas. The most outstanding example in our history is General George Washington, who crossed the Delaware River with more than 5,000 troops on Christmas Day in 1776 to attack the Hessians on the New Jersey side. Washington’s bold move turned the tide of a string of defeats for the Continental Army, and the spirits of the American colonists, who were uplifted by Washington’s initiative, sacrifice, and hope. There is still hope for a turnaround in 2026, the 250th anniversary of American independence.