The Hypocrisy of Hostage Politics: When Power Forgets Principle

“To hold the purse hostage is to confess that one has lost the argument.”
— Alexander Hamilton, as he might have written were he among us still

A Republic Held for Ransom

In recent weeks, the American people have watched their own government grind to a halt — not for lack of money, but for lack of integrity. The Senate Democrats have voted thirteen times to keep the government closed, wielding the livelihoods of public servants as leverage for unrelated political ends — the very practice they once denounced.

The same party that once accused its opponents of “hostage politics” now practices it with alarming zeal. Power, it seems, has a short memory and an even shorter conscience.

Were Hamilton alive today, he might warn:

“The surest symptom of tyranny is when parties begin to govern not for the people, but through their suffering.”

The Founders designed a system for deliberation, not demolition — yet our legislators now mistake obstruction for courage and moral theater for governance.

A Double Standard Made Law

It was not long ago that the very same voices now obstructing progress were the loudest in condemning it. They once told the American people that holding government workers hostage to political negotiations was cruel and irresponsible. Now, when the tactic serves their interests, they call it “principle.”

Hamilton might have said:

“The demagogue always finds virtue in his own hypocrisy, for it is the only principle he can afford.”

The double standard is clear: when the other party obstructs, it’s tyranny; when they do, it’s courage. This is not leadership. It’s a tragedy written in the language of self-justification.

When Government Becomes a Game

While senators posture and pundits perform, thousands of public servants go unpaid. Families face uncertainty, essential services stall, and the very trust that binds citizens to their government begins to erode.

Were John Adams here to witness it, he might sigh:

“When self-interest masquerades as virtue, the Republic begins to rot from the head downward.”

This is not governance — it’s hostage-taking with better costumes. A legislature that cannot separate political theater from its basic duty to serve is not protecting the Republic; it is exploiting it.

A Call to the American People

Hamilton believed the people, though often misled, would ultimately correct the course when conscience awoke. He trusted that a free people could tell the difference between conviction and cruelty — and that they would remember.

The time has come to prove him right. The American people must not allow partisan actors to turn the machinery of government into a stage for moral vanity. If Democrats condemned this conduct in 2013 and practiced it in 2025, then neither party stands innocent.

Accountability is not partisan; it is patriotic.

Closing Reflection

Our government does not fail when it disagrees — it fails when it forgets how to disagree. Disagreement is democracy; paralysis is decay.

Were Hamilton to write to Congress today, he might simply say:

“If you cannot govern without hostages, you are unfit to govern at all.”

The health of this Republic will not be restored by winning one more election, but by rediscovering the integrity that once made elections meaningful. It begins not in the halls of Congress, but in the hearts of citizens who still believe that principle should outlast power.