“Trump’s behavior during the shutdown made it clear he simply didn’t care how badly Americans got hurt. ‘He did not just refuse to negotiate,’ journalist Dan Drezner noted. ‘During the shutdown month he also completely bulldozed the East Wing, cut SNAP benefits, witnessed producers passing on the cost of tariffs to consumers, announced curbs on air travel, and participated in a Great Gatsby–style party at Mar-a-Lago.’
Voters hated this, but Trump didn’t appear to care. Indeed, his administration was working to ratchet up the pain of lost SNAP payments [which 42 million Americans depend on] and canceled flights, including not just passenger planes but cargo planes right before the shopping season in which many businesses make the income that keeps them afloat for the year…”
“As Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark noted, the Democrats gave in to Republican plans with few concessions, but the shutdown hurt Trump’s popularity and the Democrats won a vote on [the Affordable Care Act] subsidies, which is a terrible issue for the Republicans.”
“President Donald J. Trump did not want the shutdown to end this way. He was trying to use the pain he was inflicting on the American people to force Republican senators to end the filibuster and pass a series of measures that would essentially have made him a dictator. The Republican senators were clear they didn’t want to do that. And now, they haven’t. They chose a way out of the shutdown fight that did not support Trump’s ambitions. After nine months in which they appeared to do his bidding, that’s an interesting development.”
Maybe finally, Republicans are waking up to the fact that they are Americans and that their allegiance should be to the American people and not to Trump.
Now, both parties must join together to impeach an unqualified and criminally egotistical president.
Notes: