What the Hell? They’re Open

So the Great American Government Shutdown of 2018 is heading for the record books. 

The Democrats tried to leverage the government funding bill to secure protection for young immigrants that were brought to this country illegally but as children. They were protected by DACA until Li’l Donnie rescinded it back in September in a sop to his base and to poke Obama in the eye once again. 

So Senate Democrats agreed on Monday to on to the latest government funding bill with action on DACA deferred.

Did the Democrats lose this one? What the hell happened? 

Republican were intransigent: no immigration reform unless the government is open for business first.  The Dems were never going to get a Dream Act into law, no matter how long the shutdown lasted.   , whether that shutdown was 60 hours or 60 days. And enough Democrats didn’t quite have the appetite for a long fight, either.

The Democrats did have some Republicans in their corner. But when Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake said they’d vote to keep the government open, Senate Democrats lost that edge which took some wind out of their sails.

While early polling showed people more likely to blame Republicans than Democrats for the shutdown, the constant drum beat of hardline Republicans and Tantrum Trump threatened to erode that support over time. “Look! Democrats are more concerned with illegal immigrants than ordinary citizens hurt by a government shutdown.”

It should be pointed out that the immigrants in question were not illegal under DACA protection but then Li’l Donnie reversed it and there you go.

And Trump was in full on campaign mode, even accusing them the Democrats guilty of any murders committed by illegal immigrants.

Trump was no help, casting aspersions on the character and ethics of Democrats.  In actual negotiations, Trump was a non-entity and that was OK with both Democratic and Republican Senators who really did not want his help. It was his “help” that drove the impasse that led to the government shutdown in the first place. Mostly, he man-child in chief ranted petulantly on Twitter and posed for pictures in the Oval Office to look like he was working. 

So what about DACA? Mitch McConnell pinky swore if the Senate approved to fund the government, then DACA would be taken up again ASAP. Which is all well and good. Who knows? Mitch McConnell may actually keep his word. There’s a lot of Democrats on TV making it very clear that they’ve gone along with funding the government based on Mitch McConnell keeping his word about immigration.

But it may not matter if Mitch McConnell keeps his word. Even if the Senate can work out a DACA compromise, will the House go along with it? The Republicans are even more hardnosed about immigration. See the last effort at immigration reform in 2013-2014 when the work of the Senate got scuttled by hardline conservative Tea Party types in the House.  

At least we know there are some grownups in Washington as the shutdown was resolved with a bipartisan compromise.

We also know, alas, there is still a petulant baby in a man suit in the White House. His rantings on Twitter, his lack of a coherent message, his total incompetence that caused the government shutdown and his complete irrelevance in fixing the mess he helped create serves once again to underscore he is not competent or fit for the office of President. 

So that's a wrap Great American Government Shutdown of 2018. See you for the sequel in what, 2 months?