What Dems Must Learn After the Shutdown Battle

Stop going for the half-loaf and stop rewarding Trump's hostage-taking

There are so many hot-takes about how the government shutdown appears to have ended that I am a bit hesitant to weigh in but here it goes.

First of all, and this is not going to come as a surprise to frequent viewers of my show, I never believed for a moment that Democrats caused this latest crisis. Donald Trump and the Republicans control the government. They very well could have presented Democrats with some kind of enticement to encourage enough lawmakers to cross over and support GOP efforts to keep the lights on in Washington. That’s governing. But they didn’t do that. Because, and let’s all say this together, Trump wanted this shutdown. He and OMB Director Russ Vought - the Project 2025 architect - were all too eager to utilize the fiscal shortfall to realize some of MAGA’s long-sought ideological goals. Which explains why the administration was attempting to fire federal workers and toss millions of Americans off of SNAP assistance, almost as soon as the shutdown began.

But let’s face it. Trump is in the business of taking hostages. And Democrats apparently did not have the stomach for a prolonged pressure campaign on the White House to force the president to release SNAP recipients and federal workers from their captivity. The Huffington Post reported that several Democratic lawmakers and aides said they simply did not think Trump would cause suffering on a mass scale to force Democrats to surrender.

“It showed there was no bottom. It became clear that by staying the course and not putting an end to Trump’s cruelty, we were hurting the people we were trying to help,” a Senate Democratic aide told HuffPost. Huff Post on How Dems Lost

That is a stunning admission. We should all know by now that with Trump, there is never a bottom. Never. Imagine how low he will go. Then keep imagining. What’s worse is that the Democratic Party had just triumphed in last week’s elections. Trump had been defeated. He even acknowledged at a breakfast with Senate Republicans that the shutdown had damaged the brand, a cardinal sin in Trump World. Then, at almost the same moment Trump was being booed by a stadium full of D.C. area football fans, Democrats caved. It is still not exactly clear what happened. Either a handful of Democrats went rogue in the Senate or, more plausibly, Schumer and his deputies privately arranged for a few senators to break ranks and join Republicans in reopening the government.

Either way, it was a get out of jail free moment for Trump who was able to prove once again that by cranking up the misery in America, he can break his political opposition. In short, he learned the lesson he can take hostages. And just listen to him. He will do it again.

“He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him,” Trump gloated to Fox about his victory over Schumer.

Inexplicably, Democrats then allowed the Senators who sided with the GOP to speak to the press. Sen. Angus King, I-ME, who caucuses with the Democrats, uttered what was perhaps the worst possible thing to say in the hours after a very unpopular compromise, telling Morning Joe that “standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work.” Standing up to Trump didn't work?

Tell that to the voters who turned out in droves to send a message to Trump in the November elections. Tell that to the estimated 7 million people who showed up for the “No Kings” protests in October. They stood up to Trump and Democrats won.

It was a strange turn of events for Democratic leaders who, surprisingly, showed some fight at the beginning of the shutdown. It appeared to be a bold piece of strategic legislative handiwork by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries who hatched the plan for the party to hold out for the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that became the focal point of the funding impasse. Not only was that demonstrating that health care assistance is an important public policy goal. It was good politics, highlighting the party’s commitment to lowering costs for everyday Americans and bolstering the “affordability” message. All of which begs the question: why on earth would you abandon all of that when it appears you have Trump on the ropes? Yes, Trump was beginning to sound the battle cry for Republicans in the Senate to end the filibuster. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune can do the math. He understands what is coming in 2026. In all likelihood, it will be a blue tsunami - a prelude, perhaps to a cataclysmic defeat in the 2028 campaign. Democrats in the Senate majority, without a filibuster standing in the way, would be able to pass a bonanza of progressive policy proposals - from national health care to D.C. statehood. Thune knows this. So, it is almost certain that he would protect the filibuster at all costs.

That being said, the only reasonable explanation for the “big cave” is that Democrats in the Senate just didn’t have the fight in them to “stand up to Trump.” And that posture is just missing the moment. It is certainly not in line with the progressive base of the party. But it also feels tone deaf to what appears to be taking place across the political spectrum. The country appears to be souring quickly on Trump who looks more like a “lame duck” by the day. A strange concoction of both tired and tyrannical, Trump poses an authoritarian threat to democracy, if only he can stay awake. In short, he is immensely beatable.

Yes, it is good that Americans who rely on SNAP benefits may soon find relief at the supermarkets for their families. And it is absolutely a positive thing that federal workers who have been targeted repeatedly by Trump will go back to work. But Republicans are reportedly already making plans other than giving Democrats a vote on those Obamacare subsidies. Before the House has even returned to vote on the Senate deal to end the shutdown, GOP Senators apparently are crafting their own proposals on health care affordability. Yes it is “Lucy and the football,” yet again. GOP has other health care plans

The question for Democrats is whether they are up to the challenge. The stakes are simply too high to keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. No more “Lucy and the football.” For crying out loud, the voters want to see that ball spiked in the end zone.