But here is where the Republicans’ strategy works so brilliantly. Let’s assume that neither the administration nor Senate Democrats -- even the most timid among them -- can allow the Head Start or Pell Grant cuts to go through. That still leaves a lot of other truly worthy programs to be defended. By heaping cut upon cut, Republicans get advocates of each particular cause fighting among themselves.

And with so many reductions on the table, voters who would actually oppose most of them if they knew the details don’t get to hear much about any individual item because the media concentrate almost entirely on the partisan drama of the shutdown fight, not the particulars.

You can also imagine the argument from those Democrats petrified of their own shadows. “Well,” say the scaredy-cats, “we have to save Pell Grants and Head Start, so why don’t we give House Republicans what they want on the National Endowment for the Arts -- or their cuts in foreign aid, the Centers for Disease Control, medical research, the Women Infants and Children program, meals on wheels, or mine safety inspections? I mean, we have to give them something, or those crazies will shut down the government, and we might get blamed.”