On Nov. 5 - Day 36 of the federal government shutdown - House Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference in Washington, D.C. on the day after Democrats swept election races all over the country. He stood before a phalanx of microphones not to address what had become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, but to excoriate the election results and claim that they were not a reflection on Republicans or President Donald Trump. 

He called the election of Zohran Mamdani as the next mayor of New York City, “the biggest win for socialism in the history of the country, and it is the biggest loss for the American people.” He called Mamdani a “Marxist,” and said that the election served as a telltale sign of “where the Democrats and their party are headed.”

Johnson’s diatribe could not have been more unnecessary, spurious or ill-timed. As he spoke, the government shutdown had already partially robbed 42 million American people of their full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and while judges ordered the Trump administration to dip into reserve funds as a contingency plan to partially cover the need, it was not enough to pay for the $8 million in SNAP benefits that are distributed every month. As a result, food banks like Kennett Area Community Service in Kennett Square have doubled their normal donation efforts in calling for assistance from the general public.

Johnson’s remarks came at a moment when 670,000 government employees were furloughed from their jobs, and another 730,000 “essential” federal workers were forced to work without pay.

Johnson continued to blast the Democrats as the Small Business Administration found that it could no longer distribute $170 million in federally guaranteed loans per day to hundreds of small businesses, which has amounted to a $4.5 billion loss in capital for more than 8,300 small businesses.

As Johnson wrapped up his takedown of the opposing party’s victories, a lone voice rose above the start of the media’s questions. The woman asked Johnson if he had the phone number of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. 

“We’re having a press conference, thank you,” Johnson replied to the woman.

“I am part of the American people,” the woman said. 

“Yes ma’am, and you should respect free speech,” Johnson replied.

“You should respect free speech,” the woman said. “I’m asking you a question - if you’re ready to have a conversation with the other side. You have an obligation to call the leadership of both parties and bring us together and solve this problem together, Mr. Speaker.”

As Johnson said that he was trying to bring the parties together, a Capitol police officer attempted to intervene and escort the woman away, but she stood resolute and firm, flashing her credentials to the officer. 

She was Pennsylvania House Rep. Chrissy Houlahan – our representative in Washington, D.C. – and the discussion she was having with Johnson was only just beginning.

Johnson then placed blame for the shutdown on the Democrats.

“You voted to shut down the government,” he told Houlahan from the podium. “You voted to stop SNAP benefits. You voted to not pay the troops, not pay TSA, Border Patrol.”

“You are absolutely misrepresenting history, Sir, and you know that you are, and you’re dividing the American people,” Houlahan replied. 

“Appreciate it, thanks for your input,” Johnson told Houlahan. He then turned to the media and said, “Somebody give me a question that’s real."

It is not the intention of this editorial to place all blame for the government shutdown on the Republican Party. Let this be clear: It was a perfect storm of what happens when dissolute entities, in their collective arrogance, refuse to place the welfare of the American people above partisanship, and both should shoulder the responsibility to accept blame. 

But they are not. Democrats are demanding that Republicans extend Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies – set to expire at the end of the year - while Republicans refuse to negotiate until the shutdown ends.

On. Nov. 12, after 43 days, President Trump signed legislation to end what was the longest shutdown in U.S. history. In the following weeks, as we have come to expect, both parties will try to leverage this as their accomplishment only, but the word has already gone forth to an American public that grows increasingly weary of partisan braggadocio. In our national politics, rare are the times when the doggerel of its discourse becomes an honest moment, and with the mid-term elections on the horizon and a presidential campaign looming in the distance, it is logical to assume that neither party’s arrogance nor divisiveness will magically be tempered. In fact, given the generosity of social media to serve as a bully pulpit at such times, we can expect it to reach heights of indecency never before seen in our nation’s politics. 

We as Americans long for honest moments from our elected officials that rarely comes anymore. On Nov. 5, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan delivered the honesty and integrity that now seems whitewashed by the past decade of our political indecency. Her words, “I am part of the American people” - while perhaps idealistic in this caustic age – is confirmation that our nation’s top elected officials are positioned to be mere servants, conduits to achieving the greater good for those who put them there.