A Shutdown Fight Could Be Good For Trump And Really, Really Bad For Democrats

Seriously, do Democrats think supporting the irresponsible, over-spending, secretive, wasteful, and fraud loving bureaucracy is the hill to die on?

The Shutdown Fight That Could Play Right Into Trump’s Hands

With President Donald Trump and Elon Musk taking a sledgehammer to the federal bureaucracy with their “Department of Government Efficiency,” Democrats are desperate to push back — and some are eyeing what they see as an irresistible piece of leverage.

Asked on “Meet the Press” Sunday if he was “prepared to shut down the government” when funding expires on March 14, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said he was: “They are simply trying to dismantle the government,” he said. “I cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness that we’re seeing.” (snip)

But having covered more than a few of these shutdown fights, I can say confidently that this isn’t the leverage point Democrats and much of Washington seem to think it is. Not only is this a battle Democrats probably can’t win, it’s one that could play right into Trump and Musk’s hands.

To understand why, let’s unpack the practical and political ramifications of a DOGE-focused shutdown over Musk’s efforts.

Rachel Bade goes through a few reasons, like if this shutdown would look like the others (it’d be better for Trump) and how the 2018 shutdown only briefly hurt Trump’s poll numbers.

For one, Democrats would be embracing a tactic they’ve long shunned: holding the government hostage until they get what they want. The party has never been comfortable with that, and there’s little reason to think Democratic leaders would feel confident about doing so now.

Huh what? Democrats have pretty much been the ones holding the government hostage almost every time.

There’s also the challenging message of explaining to Americans that you’re shutting the government down in order to save the government. The argument might make sense here in Washington, but it’s pretty damn confusing for every other American. And Democrats know that, in a shutdown, the winning message wins the fight.

Ms. Bade almost makes it to the reality: Democrats are willing to shut down government to save the waste, the fraud, the theft, the over-spending, the irresponsible actions, the defiance of their supervisors and the president, the unwillingness to be responsive to the duly elected Legislative Branch and the American People, and a bloated bureaucracy. If they want to die on this hill, well, what will be the name of the political party that replaces the Democratic Party?

Democrats Stand Up for the Bureaucrats

You couldn’t invent a scene that better explains our current politics than the one last week outside the Treasury in Washington. Some genius in the Democratic Party evidently thought it a good idea to put some of the party’s most prominent faces, most notably Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in front of the cameras to protest Elon Musk’s efforts to get inside the books of the federal government in his presidentially mandated campaign to root out inefficiency.

Picture it: The Democrats, onetime tribunes of the people, fiercely defending government employees from the taxpayers; the party of the oppressed putting it all on the line to protect federal bureaucrats from the people they’re supposed to serve.

It was a tableau for the ages, one example of the many strange battle lines the Democratic Party has chosen to defend these past few years: illegal migrants over citizens, teachers unions over parents and children, criminals over victims, men-turned-women over girls. Good luck with that, Democrats. You might want to fire your pollsters.

It’s a much longer piece at the WSJ, which I’m reading via Webpage Archive. You get the idea. Democrats wouldn’t fire their pollsters: it’s who they are and what they believe.

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