A historic record of budgetary paralysis
The United States has just crossed a symbolic and troubling threshold: 36 days of shutdown, a record-breaking budgetary paralysis that lays bare a chronic institutional impasse and deep political polarization. Beginning on October 1st, 2025, this shutdown now exceeds the 2019 record set during Donald Trump’s first term. But this time, the entire federal apparatus is wavering, to the point of endangering the continuity of public services and the credibility of the federal government itself.
In a tense pre-election atmosphere, Republicans and Democrats remain entrenched in their positions with a stubbornness bordering on the absurd. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted Tuesday, with a hint of candor: “None of us expected this to drag on this long.” That admission of powerlessness reflects a systemic inability of a fragmented Congress to reach even minimal compromise.
Local elections deliver a blow to Republicans
The timing is no coincidence: this new record comes just as Democrats scored several symbolic victories in local elections. Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and even California saw the left gain ground. While secondary in institutional terms, these results now serve as political leverage for Democrats to denounce what they label Republican irresponsibility.
Donald Trump, for his part, blamed the shutdown for his party’s losses: “Trump wasn’t on the ballot, and the budget shutdown are the two reasons Republicans lost,” he wrote on Truth Social. Yet behind this defensive posture lies a deeper reality: a Republican Party fractured between radical Trumpists and disillusioned moderates.
Federal workers unpaid, social aid frozen
In real terms, the shutdown has become a silent social disaster. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed; others are forced to work without pay. This untenable situation, hitting a middle class already strained by inflation and the cost of living, could soon spark a broader crisis of confidence in government.
Even more alarming: the SNAP food assistance program has run out of funds. Trump warned that payments to the 42 million Americans who rely on it would be suspended until the “radical left Democrats” vote to end the shutdown. The federal judiciary has ordered the aid to continue, placing the White House in a precarious legal and political bind.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt tried to reassure the public while blaming the Democrats for putting the administration “in an impossible position.”
US airspace on the verge of collapse
Among the most ominous weak signals: growing chaos in airports, caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that US airspace could face partial closure if the shutdown continues. “You will see widespread chaos,” he declared, clearly aiming to increase pressure on Democrats.
What began as a budgetary standoff has become a grinding ideological war. Republicans are proposing a budget extension at current spending levels; Democrats are demanding continued subsidies for low-income health insurance. In the Senate, Republican numerical superiority is useless without a bipartisan consensus. On Tuesday, for the fourteenth time, the Republican proposal was rejected, with only three opposition senators voting in favor.
Conclusion: a democracy on life support
This historic shutdown is not merely administrative paralysis. It is a symptom of the collapse of democratic consensus in America, a sign of institutional decay that—beneath the grandstanding and rage-tweets, reveals a regime increasingly unable to do anything but stall.
All of this under the watchful eye of a world that observes, skeptical, as the supposed leading power proves incapable of operating its own government. While its airspace threatens to shut down, its poorest risk going hungry, and its elites keep playing political chicken—with one eye already on the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential race.
