Democrats Didn't Cave. They Saved People from Needless Suffering.
The Democratic message should be clear: We care about people's pain. Republicans couldn’t care less.
“What, WE worry about the people suffering?”
My initial reaction to the reports that a sufficient number of Democratic senators had “caved” to the Republicans to bring an end to the government shutdown was, “Not again! What the fuck is wrong with them?”
Upon further reflection, I see it a little differently. The fact that the Trump Administration has made it clear that it has no problem with starving Americans, causing them to be unable to have health insurance, and preventing them from joining their families for Thanksgiving, while King Donald I parties like it’s 1928, builds his own Versailles on the grounds of the People’s House, has goons attacking Americans on our own streets, seeks to prevent millions from voting, and collects tribute from billionaires and foreign leaders, made what to do at this point a tough decision.
Whichever side of this Democratic decision you think was right, the first imperative is to assure that we do not blame the other group on the Democratic side for what is a wholly-owned Republican catastrophe. Every minute spent attacking other Democrats is, at best, a wasted opportunity and, at worst, shields Republicans from the blame they deserve.
I do, though, strongly (as Trump likes to say to hide his weakness) agree with Jay Kuo that if a group of Democrats was “going to move to end the shutdown, they needed to lead with messaging, not explain themselves after the fact. The public needed to hear much more about how the Republicans refused to deal.”
They absolutely should have done that. But we are where we are and attacking fellow Democrats as “the surrender caucus” and such is not the way to go. We need to be totally united in pointing to those who are completely to blame for the whole mess: Trump, his administration, and congressional Republicans. Democrats attacking each other will just take public attention away from the real public enemies.
If Democrats on both sides of the vote can resist the temptation to fall into their customary infighting and pointing fingers at each other and instead quickly come together and present a united front on where the party—and the broader pro-democracy, pro-America movement stands, the party, democracy, and the American nation will benefit.
Sixty Years Ago, LBJ Made the Case for the Kind of Nation Trump Is Trying to Destroy
Lyndon Johnson was not a great — not even a good — public speaker.
Here’s the five-point message I suggest:
Democrats did not “cave.” We saved people from suffering needlessly. We are on the side of the American People. Republicans are on the side of the billionaires.
Trump and Republicans shut down the government for the purpose of assuring that the massive cuts to health insurance subsidies they made in their One Big Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill—we are all going to call it what it is, so the American people are not fooled—is not overturned and millions of Americans lose their health insurance.
Trump insisted on stopping supplemental food assistance so 42 million Americans will go hungry unless Democrats agreed to stop fighting to restore health insurance benefits. Catherine Rampell stated it perfectly in a Bluesky post:
Not content with denying people health insurance and making them go hungry rather then take back any of the horrors in the One Big Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill, the Trump Regime decided to continue the shutdown as it disrupts air travel, potentially keeping families from getting together for Thanksgiving. In effect, Trump and his oligarchs are saying, Why would we care about disrupting commercial air flights? We have private jets! Suck on that, people!
While Trump doesn’t care at all about making people suffer needlessly, Democrats do care about people. That is the clear message of our party’s stance both throughout the shutdown and in the agreement to end it. The Senate bill guarantees original funding levels—not the cuts in the One Big Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill—for supplemental food assistance. It assures that there will be an opportunity in a few weeks to address the cuts in assistance for Affordable Care Act insurance. We will get that assistance restored and get a vote so the American people will know where their representatives and senators stand on helping the people rather than just billionaires. Air travel will return to normal and people can go home for Thanksgiving.
The Bottom Line
Republicans don’t care about people suffering, going hungry, being unable to afford health insurance, or to fly home for Thanksgiving. Democrats do care. We are on the side of the American People. Republicans are on the side of the billionaires.
Author and historian Robert S. McElvaine writes the Musings & Amusings Substack. Read the original column here.
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Robert, I came to the same roundabout conclusion but you left out one huge advantage for ‘caving.’ We got Adelita Grivalda sworn in and as a result we have the Epstein files on our side!
Thanks for holding this up for our consideration. Often and often, once I cool down after a 'hot reaction' to something that deserves patient consideration I begin to recognize that there is more to it than I initially perceived. It does seem to me that we ought to trust those who have in the past proved trustworthy, and give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially, in this case, given the timing of their alleged 'cave.' There are months and months between now and then, months in which many would otherwise have gone without sufficient food (and in the case of children this might have created irreparable harm--remember rickets?) been in arrears on their mortgages, perhaps been forced into bankruptcy. Not to mention the severe emotional distress all this would bring, which would have torn many families apart. And now? Discussion of the GOP cruelties will resurface when the temporary agreement comes up for reconsideration, just in time for the 2026 election. The "cavers'" decision will also allow our focus now to be right where it will matter most--on the Epstein Files.