The Long Tail Of Failed LeadershipIn the vacuum, Republicans got their act together and backed Democrats into a corner. Dems now enter a government shutdown fight unprepared.
House Republicans managed to line up all the votes they needed Tuesday to pass a partisan continuing resolution—that is, a bill to continue funding the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. No mechanisms to make Donald Trump comply with the law, several right-wing goodies as inducements to drive party unity. A blank check for Elon Musk. This exemplifies the power of lib-owning and the Trump cult in the year 2025. Republicans basically never keep it together when they try to pass partisan spending legislation. But this time, Trump begged Republicans—he literally wrote, “All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week," on his social media website—to supplement his threats to support Republican primary challenges. And so they fell into line. This changes the game theory in the Senate, because there’s suddenly a viable bill at hand to fund the government, and Senate passage is the only hurdle it faces. If 50 or more Republican senators are willing to vote for it, then the only obstacle is the filibuster. Assuming that’s where things land by week’s end, Republicans will be able to barnstorm the country claiming (correctly, if tendentiously) that Democrats filibustered the government into a shutdown. Does it change the game theory enough that Democrats should change strategic course? Yes and no. I’ll explain below. ... Subscribe to Off Message to unlock the rest.Become a paying subscriber of Off Message to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
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