Shutdowns can be unpredictable. They represent everything that most sane people hate about Washington DC – the dysfunction, the polarization, the distance between political leaders and the people whose lives are dependent on a functioning government. That might be why Democrats blinked and agreed to end the government shutdown.



The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, cut a temporary deal to re-open the government on Monday after Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, promised to allow a vote to protect undocumented young immigrants known as Dreamers. Schumer was in no mood for Russian roulette. This enraged his left flank, who were already at the barricades.

Compromise or cave-in? Democrats' deal to end shutdown sows division Read more

“Millions of people flooded the streets of every major American city to stand up to Trump this weekend,” tweeted Leah Greenberg, the co-executive director of Indivisible. “Your constituents want you to fight. How can you possibly not understand that?”

It was telling that just about every Democrat who’s been named as a possible presidential hopeful voted against the temporary deal as well as most liberals and even moderates. The group voting against the three-week funding bill included Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, both Democrats from Connecticut (Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal) and even the Montana moderate Jon Tester.

Schumer’s liberal wing believes the party in charge of the government – the Republicans – will be blamed for the shutdown. More importantly, they feel a big Democratic wave building for the congressional elections in November. Anti-Trumpism is what’s fueling Democratic optimism and Democrats want to be seen as standing up to a crass, heartless leader who wants to build walls and keep out people from “shithole” countries. Senate deal-brokering won’t inspire the Democratic base.

So why is Schumer playing the power broker instead of the flame-thrower?



Democratic leaders, in the end, often choose to do the “responsible thing”. The Founders envisioned the Senate as the cooling saucer to the hotter, more populist House of Representatives, which is why senators have six-year terms and representatives only two. Senators are supposed to rise above the rabble. And many moderate voters do want, most of all, to return to the days when the Senate, and Washington broadly, actually worked.

Short-term resistance could also end up tying Democrats’ hands. Trump and Republicans are muttering threats of going “totally nuclear”, meaning they would change Senate rules to require only a simple majority to pass on every piece of legislation.



McConnell, who, like Schumer, can also be a realist, is said to be reluctant to pull a North Korea, knowing that if Democrats win control of Congress it would become a lethal weapon in their hands.



Even with McConnell’s assurances that there will be a vote to address the Dreamers, it is uncertain whether the House will go along. There, it is the hard-right Republicans who are in rebellion against deal-making.

Key players in the US government shutdown: who came out on top? Read more

It seems unthinkable that the United States would allow the wholesale deportation of millions of undocumented young people who came to America as children. It seems unthinkable that building will ever commence on Trump’s much-trumpeted wall. But it’s become commonplace for the unthinkable to become reality in Donald Trump’s America.



In an email to supporters, the president crowed about forcing the end of “the Schumer Shutdown”. “Democrats in red states we won big league saw how ANGRY you were with their disgusting tactics, and couldn’t go on any longer. This is how we win -- by rallying together and fighting!” the president said.



Schumer has already said that dealing with the president is like negotiating with Jell-O. Now he will see whether a promise from Mitch McConnell is any firmer.

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