For God’s Sake, Democrats: Don’t Cave

That CBS poll, which has some absolutely brutal numbers for Trump (more on which later), also includes this little morsel. Respondents were given a list of words and asked which applied to each party. The main word they affixed to the Democrats? “Weak.” They’re right, of course. And if four more Democrats peel off and vote for the Senate Republican bill, they’ll just prove once again how lame they are.

If the Democrats stick together, they can win this and make Trump cave. It’s worth remembering that in the last shutdown, from 2018 into 2019, it was Trump who caved, and without getting what he wanted. He forced that shutdown over funding for his border wall. Thirty-four days after he started it, he ended it with no border wall funding. Granted, that was a different situation—a new Congress was sworn in in January 2019 with a Democratic House majority, so Trump knew there was zero chance of winning that fight.

But border-wall funding wasn’t the only reason Trump ran up the white flag. Military personnel weren’t being paid. Ditto air traffic controllers. Robert Reich, in an interview he did over the weekend, said that he thinks air traffic controllers are key here—as they were, to some extent, in 2018-19, when some of them started to call in sick after the first three weeks. Today, as then, they are working without pay. They guide the movement not only of commercial jets but of rich people’s private planes, and Reich posits that when Trump’s buddies start calling him and whining that they’re grounded, he’ll fold. I’ve definitely heard worse theories.