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If the Democrats want to shut down the federal government over DACA with midterm elections coming this November, then let them. After all, what better way would there be for the party’s leaders to demonstrate to their own constituents that they are second-class citizens in their eyes? I mean, I don’t see them threatening a shutdown over other issues that are important to their base like gun control, transgender people in uniform or cannabis. Apparently, in order to be important enough for the DNC to shut down the American government for you the one thing that you can’t be is American.
And while the move might not seem to phase extremists like Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, who feel safe from Republican challengers in deep blue Massachusetts, their liberal counterparts elsewhere should think twice. Far left voters might not jump ship on them over it, but that same faction would still go their way without a shutdown and meanwhile other voters – the ones whose ballots they need to compete for in order to win – wouldn’t be happy. Especially if the shutdown was over DACA.
Another thing to bear in mind: the Democrats have the votes to shut down the government but they wouldn’t be able to get it going again without Republicans. History shows that it’s usually the opposition party, i.e. the one with fewer members in Congress, that takes most of the blame for a shutdown.
On the other side, it’s unlikely that Trump and the GOP would lose much support from the voters who put them in power for holding firm on immigration issues. Additionally, while most of the things which conservatives value most, like the military and homeland security, are deemed essential and continue through a government shutdown, in comparison many of the things that liberals hold most dear, like the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Park Service (NPR) and nutritional assistance programs would go unfunded and largely furloughed through the shutdown.
If the situation were to drag on (though historically most government shutdowns have been over quickly), individual federal programs could be temporarily funded on a case-by-case basis and again the Dems would face blame if they rebuked such simple spending bills out of hand.
So, once the government is shut down and Democrats are taking the blame, the GOP could demand a larger concession to start it back up – like maybe a border wall.
Hence, if I were Trump, I’d start a debt-style clock, by counting in the opposite direction, tallying up all the money that the shutdown is saving America. After a few months we would probably be rid of thousands of non-essential federal payroll patriots and draining that much swamp could sure pay for a lot of wall…
