Like that one good friend who repeatedly guarantees to give up consuming after only one final spherical, the American authorities is staggering towards one other shutdown. It’s beginning to appear inevitable — as a result of it appears to be like as if neither facet goes to swerve on this recreation of rooster.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate minority chief who one way or the other manages to perpetually look each drained and smug, can’t afford one other political retreat. He’s refusing to offer Republicans one other clean examine, aiming as an alternative to wring out some key concessions in change for a number of Democratic votes to get a funding invoice by means of the higher chamber.
The issue? President Trump, who runs the present for Republicans, views a shutdown the identical manner Hans Gruber seen the FBI in “Die Laborious”: as a characteristic, not a bug. Shuttered businesses and mass firings of federal staff aren’t obstacles; they’re leverage (and typically the aim itself).
Schumer can’t again down, and Trump doesn’t need to again down. That’s why the shutdown feels extra imminent than the final time we flirted with one, again in March, when Schumer and Democrats folded.
In equity, their reasoning wasn’t loopy. Trump and Elon Musk have been working roughshod with their Division of Authorities Effectivity, and a shutdown would have solely given Republicans extra discretion to resolve which providers (Area Power, a brand new White Home ballroom and, I don’t know, a Nationwide Strategic Spray Tan Reserve) have been “important.”
Democrats additionally had a believable cause to consider that Trump’s steep “reciprocal” tariffs would wreck the economic system. They reasoned that if they simply saved their heads down, the president would take all of the blame for the crash — an affordable concept that fell aside when Trump pumped the brakes earlier than careening the economic system off a cliff.
Since then, Trump has engaged in a marketing campaign of authoritarian-tinged vengeance at such a powerful tempo that the Democrats’ technique of “enjoying possum” appears laughably passive and totally naive — like assuming a hurricane will simply get drained and cease.
So now Democrats are pondering, “Nicely, issues can’t get any worse if we struggle again.”
(Spoiler alert: Issues can all the time worsen.)
Nonetheless, you may’t blame Dems for drawing a line within the sand, penalties be damned. Blocking authorities funding is without doubt one of the solely mechanisms on the disposal of a minority get together to show their opposition. Ethical outrage and satisfaction virtually demand it.
Why assist bankroll a authorities led by a person who doesn’t negotiate in good religion and appears intent on bulldozing democracy itself?
Why be complicit in normalizing — and funding! — Trump’s irregular habits?
Sadly, most voters don’t care about democracy within the summary, and even fewer care in regards to the interior workings of Congress. They care about kitchen-table points.
So Democrats try to marry their righteous fury with one thing extra sensible and concrete — casting the shutdown as a battle to increase Obamacare subsidies and undo GOP Medicaid cuts.
For those who’re preserving rating, the opposition get together is now attempting to painting this looming shutdown as being about a number of issues. And anybody who’s ever cracked a advertising and marketing textbook is aware of, that’s a fraught technique. Dare I say “doomed”? For those who can’t keep on one message, your opponent will management the narrative — that means Republicans will blame the fallout on obstructionist Democrats.
Republicans have a less complicated pitch that would nearly match on a bumper sticker: “We simply need to maintain issues funded on the present stage, plus toss in a bit of additional safety for lawmakers.”
Which message will prevail? Who will take the blame if the federal government shuts down and People are struggling in myriad methods? Democrats say that Republicans management every part, so the buck stops with them. Republicans will say the Senate requires 60 votes and Democrats are withholding assist to attain political factors. It’s not a slam dunk for both get together. The American folks simply need the federal government to perform, and neither facet is making that simple.
You actually should squint to think about a state of affairs the place Dems may actually declare “mission achieved” when that is throughout. Nonetheless, there’s a rising sense that it’s higher to go down combating, even should you’re destined to lose (which they is likely to be).
However make no mistake, a shutdown could be very probably occurring. The Republican-controlled Home of Representatives isn’t even set to return to Washington till Wednesday (the day the federal government may very well be shuttered).
In the meantime, Trump abruptly canceled negotiations with Democratic leaders, citing “the unserious and ridiculous calls for being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats.”
The excellent news: We’re not speaking in regards to the debt ceiling or a attainable authorities default; it’s only a authorities shutdown (one thing that has occurred many occasions already). Social Safety checks will nonetheless arrive. Federal staff will finally receives a commission. Parks will shut. Life will stagger on.
And so, barring some deus ex machina, we slouch towards one other shutdown: a bureaucratic farce that everybody can see coming a mile away. It accomplishes nothing productive, but feels destined to occur — just like the “Austin Powers” slow-motion steamroller gag, besides stretched out over weeks, costing billions of {dollars} and hurting thousands and thousands of lives.
We’ve seen this film earlier than. We’re those being flattened.
Matt Ok. Lewis is the creator of “Filthy Wealthy Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”
