Have you ever played tug of war? If so, you recognize what’s happening in Congress right now. Republicans pulling, Democrats pulling, and here we are: stuck in the middle, again.
Shutdowns for the government are never a good thing. Our country should have eliminated the possibility a long time ago. However, this particular shutdown is far worse than any others primarily because of how Trump has weaponized the shutdown. If he and his administration aren’t violating the Hatch Act on a daily basis, Trump and his Project 2025 minion, Vought, are using the shutdown as an excuse to decimate even more of the government.
We would think that Congressional members would be busily negotiating an end to the shutdown, but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson won’t even convene the House for other business, much less working to resolve the shutdown. To me, this proves that Republicans are less interested in getting the government up and running, and more interested in pandering to our newest SCOTUS-appointed King, Trump.
Which leads me to what I think is the best possible outcome for this shutdown and that’s for Thune to finally blow up the filibuster and allow a party-line vote on resuming operations.
It would be nice to get healthcare for the citizens of this country, but Republicans have shown that little things like feeding the hungry and caring for the sick are not as important as building a ballroom for the President and striking a new coin in his image.
From both Johnson and Thune we’ve seen nothing but disinterest on ending the shutdown. However, at some point, critical functionality like paying for all those $50,000 bonuses for new ICE goons will shake them out of their Fox-headlight dazed stare and require them to actually Do Something.
They may realize that causing millions of taxpayer health insurance premiums to double in price could actually impact on their elections next year. It may actually also dawn on them that all the government cuts Trump is gleefully making are harming people that vote for them. And they may decide to toss Democrats a bone, and Democrats, knowing the hurts caused by the shutdown, may grab the bone. But I hope they don’t.
The best of all outcomes from this shutdown is to force Thune to blow away the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.
While this seems like a win for Republicans, why do I consider this a win for Democrats? After all, this removes the last bit of power Democrats have in Congress.
The 60-vote threshold requires that at least eight Democrats cross over to help Republicans pass legislation. The Republicans then can claim at some future time—when their bad legislation hits Americans—that the bills passed with ‘bipartisan’ support. And the media will find someway, somehow, to twist the pretzel that now passes for ‘journalism’ and decide not only are Democrats partially to blame, they’re solely to blame.
After all: how many times have we read in the past that this or that is really the fault of Democrats, no matter who instigates the action and no matter how little Democrats have a say? Even now, when Democrats don’t control any part of the government, the White House and Congressional Republicans are saying the fault lies solely with the Democrats.
If the filibuster is gone, everything from this point on is solely and wholly owned by Republicans. And while there might be some positive legislation passed under complete Republican constrol, with this President and this Congress a lot of ugly will pass through the hallowed (or is that hollowed?) Congressional halls.
For once, Democrats won’t be around to clean up the mess Republicans make, and maybe this time, voters will actually wake up long enough to see it.
Best of all, we would no longer have to depend on Chuck “Everything’s fine” Schumer to eliminate the filibuster when the Democrats do finally get the Senate. And we’ll need to destroy the filibuster at that point if we have any hope of repairing even half the damage Trump, SCOTUS, and Congressional Republicans have done and will continue to do to this country in the next few years.
Sometimes the only way to ‘win’ at tug of war, is to just let go of the rope and let your opponent fall on their asses.
cover image, courtesy of Wannapik Studio
