The Democrats Flinched

In case you were unaware, the U.S. Government shut down over the weekend, and almost nothing came of it. In what was more or less political theater in which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was able to use words like “negotiating with Jell-O” to describe talks with President Trump, and everyone tried to brand a hashtag that more or less went #(insert name of responsible party)shutdown it was blandly uneventful and anti-climactic. In brief, Democrats caved under political fear, and Republicans promised to tackle DACA next month.

The point is not that this was political theater as that shocks no one. The point is that it came down to a standoff, then a gun loading ceremony, and then a trigger pull to discuss and negotiate protection for childhood arrivals. An issue over 80 percent of Americans support resolving before the deadline in March.

Democrats took a huge political risk in shutting down the government, but in no time in history has a minority party in both the House, Senate and White House successfully shut down the government for any reason, so there is that accomplishment for Schumer to tout, but I digress. Democrats went about this in the wrong way. In what should have looked like political bravery in California, New York, Oregon, and so on, it will not play well in places Democrats need to keep or win in 2018. Places like Montana, North Dakota, Arizona, and the like want a common sense, border security infused solution to DACA, and immigration in general.

That means that instead of trying to take on the function of government to handle a singular issue inside a much larger reform there should be public process. Bill writing, committee meetings, hearings, amendments and so on that will allow the public to talk about and accept reform and allow politicians to negotiate and acquiesce or not to the needs of America, and not the extremist elements of their parties. This was the case over the weekend, and all we got was three days of uncertainty and Washington stupidity for absolutely zero. Democrats had the same promise over six months ago when they extended the budget then, and they still shut the government down this time around. Maybe instead of taking hostages, and executing some of them we should just govern, and worry less about beating the ratings junky in the White House, because he is so much better at it.

In case you were wondering #TrumpShutdown trended far faster than #SchumerShutdown, so who knows what any of this means for 2018, but again I digress.