PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

(From top left) Catherine Masto, Dick Durbin, John Fetterman, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Jacky Rosen and Jeanne Shaheen. These eight senators broke with Democrats on the government shutdown deal Monday.

As I write this, members of Congress are making their way back to D.C. in anticipation of a vote on the House floor to approve a spending package that would reopen the federal government and fund it until Jan. 30. 

By the time you read this, the vote may be ongoing or already finished, but barring some act of divine intervention or members of the GOP caucus suddenly deciding to oppose the President, the government will reopen after the longest shutdown in American history. 

The reason for the shutdown in the first place was the impasse reached by Democratic and Republican Senators over a spending bill that would have slashed Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. 

Democrats held firm, refusing to approve the bill until Republicans came to the table and made some concessions that they viewed as essential to their constituents. 

They held firm when SNAP benefits were put at risk. Held firm when thousands of federal employees continued to work without pay. All of this, they said, in the name of making a stand for what they believed their constituents voted for them to defend. 

After 41 days, eight Democratic senators decided that they had fought long and hard enough. They joined with the Republicans to pass the spending bill 60-40.  

Their reasoning and justifications vary, but are ultimately of little importance. No matter what they say, the evidence is clear.

They caved. 

They stood strong and played the part of the resilient opposition fighting for their constituents, and when the heat got just a little too intense, they folded their hand and gave up. 

This is nothing new, simply the latest example of Democrats being ineffective, weak and uninspired. 

This sudden shift is particularly notable given that it occurred in the wake of a seemingly turning tide. Democratic candidates swept elections across the nation last week, many victors campaigning on the platform that their victories were a rebuke of the Trump administration. 

For the first time since Kamala Harris stepped in as the Democratic nominee for President, Democrats seemed to have momentum and public opinion on their side, or at the very least, heading in that direction. 

Instead of capitalizing on that momentum and using that public good will to stand strong and hold onto their demands and force the administration to publicly attempt to deny SNAP payments during a shutdown that the majority of Americans blamed on the Republicans anyway, they instead broke rank and gave Trump exactly what he wanted: an end to the shutdown and a frame work to blame the Democrats for causing it. 

Now you may be thinking, surely the Democrats were able to get at least some of their demands added into the bill. Surely they would not have folded and come away empty-handed with absolutely nothing to show for their time and efforts during this shutdown. 

You would be wrong.

Now, the government will reopen, and the Democrats will have effectively kept the government shut down for no reason at all. Everything they demanded is still out of reach. Federal employees worked without pay, others faced evictions and many more struggled with food insecurity, all in the name of nothing. 

It’s all quite emblematic of the Democratic Party as a whole, really. They seemed united and focused on a singular issue, got good publicity from their empty statements and then backed out at the most opportune time for their opponents. 

This is what happens when your party is made up of people who don’t really stand for anything. Who will say and do whatever has been tested in think-tanks and surveys to be the ‘right’ answer. When your foundation is made up of AIPAC money, you don’t really have the strength to weather a storm.

When your leaders are corrupt and self-serving, you fail. When you move further to the right in response to a shifting political landscape, you lose. When your voters cannot trust you to accomplish even the smallest of tasks, you deserve to be shamed. 

Change must come to the Democratic Party and it must come soon. 

But of course, that’s just one man’s opinion.

Categories: Opinion