Stranded at the Gate of Greed

As America heads into Thanksgiving with grounded flights and a grounded government, GOP cruelty has turned national travel into a metaphor for a country stuck in political turbulence.

Guest article by Michael Cohen. Remember to follow him on Substack for more by clicking here. Michael is also racing to 500K followers on YouTube! Subscribe today for free here.

Even under the best of circumstances, traveling is a royal pain in the ass. Checking in, luggage fees, praying your bag doesn’t end up in Boise when you’re going to Boston, TSA lines that move slower than Congress, shoes off, belt off, laptop out, water bottle dumped, body scanned, dignity optional. And just when you think you’re through, you realize you forgot your laptop in your bag. Damn… back in line. Again.

Finally, you make it to your gate, sweaty and disheveled, muttering to yourself that the vacation better be worth it. Then comes the final test of human endurance: boarding. The overhead bins are already crammed with other people’s oversized “carry-ons,” the seat in front of you reclines directly into your lap, your television screen isn’t functioning, and now your bag is jammed under the seat, eating your legroom. You’re packed in like a sardine, but you tell yourself: It’s fine. It’s Thanksgiving. You’ll see family, friends, have a drink, and breathe again.

Except this year, you might not get that far.

Because as Veterans Day and Thanksgiving approach—the time we’re supposed to reflect on sacrifice and gratitude—the country is in chaos once again. The government remains closed for the 38th straight day, thanks to the GOP’s latest act of political vandalism: a shutdown so reckless that even traveling to see your loved ones has become collateral damage.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that even if the shutdown miraculously ended today, the damage is already done. Flights are being slashed across the country due to staffing shortages in air traffic control. The FAA, already stretched thin before this mess, is now cutting flights by up to 10% at 40 of America’s busiest airports. That includes Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and all three New York-area airports. And Duffy, in a moment of bureaucratic optimism, said it could hit 20% if things don’t improve soon.

You can practically hear the holiday panic echoing through the terminals.

Air traffic controllers—those essential workers who keep the skies from turning into demolition derbies—have now gone over five weeks without pay. These are men and women responsible for millions of lives every day, and they’re being told to keep showing up out of “patriotism,” while their paychecks vanish. One union leader put it bluntly: “They’re not calling in sick; they’re calling to say, ‘I don’t have gas to get to work.’”

That’s not just a logistical failure. That’s a moral one.

Let’s call this shutdown what it really is: a hostage situation orchestrated by a Republican Party that’s lost its grip on reality. Their ransom note? Gut healthcare funding. The message? If Americans want the basic right to see a doctor without going bankrupt, then everyone else can suffer too. Airports jammed, families stranded, veterans waiting on benefits, kids going hungry—all because the GOP decided that access to healthcare is something to be negotiated, not guaranteed.

And for what? So a handful of right-wing extremists can pound their chests about “fiscal responsibility”? These are the same people who voted for Trump’s trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the wealthy, who have no problem spending billions on bloated defense contracts, but clutch their pearls at the thought of paying for insulin.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country is paying the price—literally. Retailers are warning that delayed flights mean delayed shipments, with nearly half of air freight normally traveling in the belly of commercial planes. So not only will you miss Thanksgiving dinner, but you might also miss Christmas presents too. Happy holidays, courtesy of the GOP Shutdown Express.

And here’s the kicker: even if the government reopens tomorrow, the damage is baked in. Air traffic controllers don’t just flip a switch and resume normal operations. Fatigue, morale, staffing—it all takes time to recover. We’re not talking about rebooting your Wi-Fi. We’re talking about human beings who have been ground down by political cruelty masquerading as governance.

This is what happens when ideology trumps empathy. When “owning the libs” becomes more important than owning up to your responsibilities. And when a party that used to call itself conservative now proudly calls chaos a strategy.

You’d think, after years of shutdowns, tantrums, and dysfunction, we’d learn. But here we are again: planes grounded, families separated, livelihoods upended—all because the Republican Party can’t bring itself to admit that healthcare is a human right, not a political bargaining chip.

So as you sit in that cramped terminal, waiting for a flight that may or may not take off, remember this: the turbulence you’re feeling isn’t just in the air. It’s in our democracy. It’s what happens when governing becomes a sideshow and cruelty becomes policy.

And maybe—just maybe—as you fork over $18 for an airport sandwich and cup of coffee and scroll through the endless list of “delayed” notifications, you’ll realize that this isn’t just a travel nightmare. It’s America’s political dysfunction playing out at 30,000 feet.

We used to be a country that could get things done. Now, we can’t even get off the ground.

So buckle up, my friends. The seatbelt sign is on, the government’s out to lunch, and thanks to the GOP’s latest shutdown stunt, Thanksgiving might just be canceled—literally and figuratively.

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