November 13: In the Long Run, the Shutdown May Benefit Democrats
The CW has it that the government shutdown, at least the way it ended, was a setback for Democrats. I suggested otherwise at New York.
There’s a lot of ill-suppressed glee among Republicans right now, along with recriminations among Democrats, about the end of the longest government shutdown ever. Eight Democratic senators were able to undercut a few hundred of their colleagues by ending a filibuster against a bill to reopen government, exhibiting both weakness and disunity. (Though there’s no telling how many holdouts privately agreed with the “cave.”) Worse, Democrats failed to secure an extension of Obamacare premium subsidies they repeatedly demanded.
So were Republicans the “winners” and Democrats the “losers” in the shutdown saga? Maybe now, but maybe not later. As the New York Times’ Annie Karni observes, the short-term stakes of the shutdown fight may soon be overshadowed by more enduring public perceptions of what the two parties displayed:
“[Some Democrats] assert that in hammering away at the extension of health care subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of next month, they managed to thrust Mr. Trump and Republicans onto the defensive, elevating a political issue that has long been a major weakness for them.
“And in holding out for weeks while Republicans refused to extend the health tax credits and Mr. Trump went to court to deny low-income Americans SNAP food benefits, Democrats also honed their main message going into 2026: that Republicans who control all of government have done nothing to address voters’ concerns that the cost of living is too high”.
Trump’s clumsy and insensitive handling of the SNAP benefit cutoff was an unforced error and a gift to Democrats. But just as importantly, by “losing” the Obamacare subsidy–extension fight, Democrats may have dodged a bullet. A deal on that issue would have cushioned or even eliminated an Obamacare premium price hike that will now be a real problem for Trump and the GOP. Republicans appear to have no health-care plan other than the same tired panaceas involving individual savings plans that allow health insurers to discriminate against poorer and sicker Americans — precisely the problem that led to passage of the Affordable Care Act and has made Obamacare popular.
The big takeaway from Democrats’ election sweep this month is that “affordability” is a message that accommodates candidates ranging from democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to centrist Abigail Spanberger and that plays on tangible public unhappiness with Trump’s broken promises to reduce the cost of living. That Republicans emerged from the government shutdown having abundantly displayed their lack of interest in soaring health-care costs and persistently high grocery costs positions Democrats exactly where they hope to be next November.
In addition, the election wins showed that rank-and-file Democratic voters and the activists who helped turn them out were not particularly bothered by the year’s many ideological and generational collisions over anti-Trump strategy and tactics. The Democratic “struggle for the soul of the party” that Republicans and Beltway pundits love more than life itself may manifest itself more visibly during 2026 primaries. But when general-election season arrives, there’s every reason to believe Democrats will stop fighting each other and focus on flipping the House — and in a big-wave election, maybe even the Senate — and destroying the governing trifecta that has enabled so many Trump outrages this year. It’s one thing to debate endlessly how to “fight” and “stop” Trump. It’s another thing to be given a clear opportunity to do just that at the ballot box.
The expiration of the shutdown deal on January 30 could in theory produce another government shutdown and another set of expectations to be met or missed. But “winning” the current shutdown won’t in itself improve Trump’s lagging job-approval ratings, or the incoherence of his economic policies, or the fears his authoritarian conduct instills. That’s the GOP’s problem and Democrats’ opportunity.
> The Newsweek poll also says that 77% of Democrats
> think that this is the most important election of their
> lives. Only 22% of Republicans agree.
I am surprised so few Republicans feel that way — but the Demo response should be self-evident. At least in the short term (=four next years), a Bush win would allow the GOP controlled White House and Congress to do enormous damage to the Democratic base. Conservative judges would be nominated, social security would be at least partly privatized, federal jobs could be outsourced to non-unionized private workers etc.. Grover Nordquist was confident enough to brag about this in WaPo half a year ago.
> Also, 54% want a new president.
let’s hope they all vote for Kerry then.
MARCU$
The Newsweek poll also says that 77% of Democrats think that this is the most important election of their lives. Only 22% of Republicans agree.
Also, 54% want a new president.
I think I have those figures right.
The details of the Time poll are very strange. They have female RVs 46K-46B, but the stranger still was the results about how people felt about the positive/negative nature of the campaign: Do you feel X has run a more positive or more negative campaign (RV)
Kerry: 40 pos., 49 neg.
Bush: 47 pos., 41 neg.
Here in Florida I’ve seen only a couple of positive Bush commercials. Did these people see the RNC? I would sure like to see the correlation between these responses. Bet it is close to -1. Yet Time claims the sample breaks down as 35 Dem/33 Rep/23 Ind. This poll seems to be too much of an outlier for this to be the result of sampling error.
wait a second??? If Kerry is winning indepandents by 14,
How is he not far ahead of Bush????
They must have oversampled republicans again.