Should Democrats be willing to shutdown the government? [View all]

NYT, No Paywall

The arguments for a shutdown vary: to bring attention to the abuses of power of Trump; to wring policy concessions, particularly on health care; to demand an end to impoundment and rescission and other deal breaking; to push Trump back toward constitutional governance; to pick a fight because Democrats need a fight, and it would help party unity. Are they all wrongheaded?

Generally, they are all misguided, and none of them are likely to work. But I also think you can rank them. The worst idea is to shut down the government over general Trump abuses or lawlessness. That will probably never work at a policy level — how could it?— and would tend to unify the G.O.P. while Democrats bickered over the strategy and eventually split over whether to continue the shutdown. The public will likely be confused about what the Democrats are even demanding.

Shutting the government down over a specific list of actual policy demands makes somewhat more sense. The health care subsidies are popular, and are perhaps a reasonable thing to fight for. Definitely something to try to negotiate. But once you shut down the government, you aren’t going to win those concessions. So you are probably better off just operating normally, trying to get winnable Republicans on board with the extension, and keep the stakes low.