The Democrats Finally Grew a Spine

As is often the case, there is a lot to do in the approach of Democrats. For weeks, a closure seemed inevitable, but they hesitated to kiss it, and their message has only met in recent days. Democrats emphasize their reasonable character – they really don’t ask for much! – and focus on their highest problem: health care. Almost everything that the party says about the closure involves health care. There are, of course, other things that happen, and it could have been an opportunity to talk about prices and growing authoritarianism of the Trump administration.

Now that the government has closed, there will be time to raise the salience of these problems and perhaps damage Trump. It can be unpopular, but – as happened during his first mandate – his unpopularity was relatively static. The same voters who hated him in the spring still don’t like him now. This does not cause alarm for democrats, who are always well positioned for mid-term. But given the larger issues – an authoritarian president who deploys troops against the Americans and who deports law residents by thousands of people – a drop in Trump’s popularity could be essential.

It could very well be a lot of time for Trump the popularity of diving. At this point, everything indicates a long stop. There is a clear ramp – Democrats would probably fall back in exchange for an extension of the ACA subsidies – but Trump has, for any reason, showed no interest in taking it. He and Vought can simply decide that the closure allows them to manage the government as they wish, without the approval of the congress, whatever the courts. (We can probably guess what the Supreme Court would say, unfortunately.)