I find it interesting that out of the 800,000 federal workers not getting paid because of the government shutdown, none of them include members of Congress — convenient but not surprising. It’s one thing to stand for principle at your own expense but quite another at someone else’s.

President Donald Trump is in a very difficult spot. He’s like the coach of a lousy football team where a star halfback, Nancy Pelosi, fumbles the ball every time she touches it, or a star receiver, Chuck Schumer, drops the ball in the end zone every time.

In the real world where this happens, the coach takes the blame for the team’s bad play. Also in the real world, the coach (Trump) and the owners (us) can trade away bad players for better ones. Apparently Chuck and Nancy seem to have a “no trade” clause in their contracts. What they need the next time around is a term-limit clause. These two should have been booed off the team years ago.

Regarding the government shutdown, someone is going to have to swallow their pride. Seeing how Trump is the coach, right or wrong, it might have to be him. That’s too bad because I believe Chuck and Nancy are willing to let this country go down the tubes as long as Trump gets the blame.

Will the president succumb to the pressure? Perhaps, but if he does, he needs to tell the nation as to why it happened. How the Republicans continually let him down, and how the Democrat as well as a host of others constantly attacked him.

Trump may not get re-elected, but that shouldn’t be the point. A politician’s main duty is to help the country. If they happen to get re-elected in the process, great. As usual, in the end, we’ll get what we deserve.

— Allan Gilmour

Salisbury