By Allen Nitschelm
The Democrats’ strategy to force and prolong the government shutdown makes no sense. As President Trump likes to say “they have no cards.”
A core constituency of the Democrat Party is unions. They enjoy strong support from the teachers and government employee unions, because of the de facto kickback scheme from which they both benefit. The unions get protection to continue their racket to force employees into joining and paying dues, and the politicians get a steady source of funding and volunteers for their reelections. A better example of a “quid pro quo” does not exist.
So it was odd that the Democrats decided to make their courageous stand against future cuts to healthcare subsidies by hurting their core constituents: recipients of public assistance and government employees. They have in effect threatened to cut off their own arm if the Republicans don’t capitulate to their demands.
Republicans don’t want to be blamed for the current shutdown, but few voters will do so, because it is obvious in words and deeds that the Democrats own this one. Several of their leaders have admitted that they believe they have leverage to force Republicans to negotiate changes to the “big beautiful bill,” including stopping the sunsetting of enhanced health insurance subsidies that are scheduled to end this year (because Covid is over, in case you hadn’t heard.) And seeing Democrats continue to vote against reopening government is all the proof one needs to know which party to blame.
As we get closer to stopping SNAP benefits and to workers missing paychecks, the Democrats will have to realize their folly. They should be focusing on the ballot box to redress their perceived grievances, not on inflicting pain on their core constituencies. Is this how they aim to build loyalty to their party? I don’t think it is working.
Republicans are not against helping the poor and those in true need, but like government spending, we insist on trying to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. We do not believe able-bodied adults should be taken care of by society instead of working to support themselves. Work is not a bad thing, it is a good thing.
I guess I can understand the Democrats’ frustration. The Biden-Harris administration was the worst in history by far. The American people finally saw the corruption of the Democrat Party on a number of fronts, including their suppression of free speech, their de facto coup against Joe Biden, their habit of picking unpopular positions like allowing men to compete against women in sports in violation of Title IX, and spending trillions of dollars on “climate change,” which is a hoax and has been since the narrative started.
The rank and file have either left the party, are contemplating leaving, or have bought the premise pushed by its leadership that President Trump is a wannabe dictator-fascist-Nazi and we should have “no kings.” Republicans are not ready to crown King Donald, but we do think he is acting in the best interests of the country 90% of the time, including his policies to stop wars, to end illegal immigration, to deport those who came here illegally, to protect the rule of law and reduce crime, to bring manufacturing back to this country and to not let other countries control critical infrastructure that is vital to our national security, to have trade that is fair and not one-sided, and to have energy independence and low energy prices to reduce inflation.
When the Democrats’ attempt to extort Republican Senators eventually fails, I wonder how they will manage to cut off their other arm. Maybe it will be by endorsing and electing a Socialist-Marxist for mayor of NYC.
Allen Nitschelm is a former Editor of Acton Forum and now lives in New Hampshire.
Welcome back Allen.
The biggest headscratcher for me is how Democrats can get re-elected by huge majorities in major cities even as they drag the cities down into the gutter. Bill DeBlasio won re-election handily after destroying everything that Guiliani and Bloomberg had done. Same with other mayors and District Attorneys.
Even in tomorrow’s election in 4 states, they will do very well, quite disproportionate to their track record of competent governance.
The real danger right now is the overtly Marxist direction of the party. This is the moment when all sensible Democrats need to make temporary common cause with the Republicans in order to safeguard free speech, prevent illegal immigration, and honor our history and system of government. The barbarians are at the gate, and we are in real danger of losing it all within a generation.
Proponents of the recent “NO KINGS DAY” sure seem to be now demanding that Trump act like a king with regard to the Schumer shutdown and lapse of SNAP.
Your point about unions is a good one. Unions foster mediocrity and where mediocrity becomes the norm, mediocrity soon becomes the ideal. This is the basic tenet of the Democratic Party.