Our View

What happens in Washington, D.C. often seems to stay in Washington, D.C., at least from the perspective of those of us living in the boonies. By the time they reach us, it feels like the ripples of legislation are too gentle to be felt.

But when it comes to the longest government shutdown in American history, the opposite has proven to be true: it’s our friends and neighbors who are suffering the fallout, not Congress and the presidential administration.

You’ve probably heard the estimates that 800,000 American people are still working without pay or twiddling their thumbs at home, waiting to...