If you’re keeping track of the media, Republicans shutting down the government are evil and those voting to reopen the government are moderates, while Democrats shutting down the government are principled warriors while those voting to reopen it are sellouts.
Democrats shut down the government for the optics rather than for any specific policy gains (despite all the whines about Obamacare) and they got what they wanted, victories nearly across the board in multiple elections and the perception that they have the wind at their backs in the midterms.
The problem is that for their base, the whole point of shutting down the government was to…
- Fight Trump regardless of whether any real gains are involved
- Achieve some kind of victory
And so there are howls of fury, some entirely performative about Democrats who ‘sold out’ by reopening the government. The performative gang is after Schumer and they’ll probably get him even though Sen. Schumer is managing to play both sides by leaking that he wanted to keep the government closed while quietly encouraging the reopening.
Media support and the simple fact of a Republican majority, no matter how narrow, ensured that the public would blame Republicans more for the shutdown (all evidence to the contrary) but they’re still blaming Dems, and saner voices understand that wrecking the country only goes so far. The less sane voices wanted to wreck the country more.
Now the Dems are debating whether they wrecked the country enough.
