Dear Democrats:
I regret to inform you that your leaders, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, are walking straight into the White House trap. And since they will, Donald Trump will cut off their heads, defecate down their necks, and dance in their entrails.
They don’t want a government shutdown and are thus willing to negotiate in good faith with a man for whom lies are currency, a man who has broken his promises in business, marriage, politics, and life more than he’s kept them.
The consultants, pollsters, and focus-group whisperers have told Democratic leadership they need to fight for the Obamacare/ACA insurance benefit because it polls well. I’m sure it does. It happens to be the right thing to do, but not the right thing to do right now.
Why? Because pain is the only teacher in politics, and they’re giving Trump a lifeline to escape the cost of the pain he’s caused Americans.
Even if you avert a shutdown, Democrats will accrue exactly zero political credit for it.
As I’ve written before: you are not dealing with good-faith actors. You are not dealing with men of honor. You are not dealing with a White House that plays by any rules.
This administration has already shown it will illegally rescind or block congressionally authorized and appropriated funding whenever it dislikes the outcome or the aesthetics.
Every person in history who has tried to make a deal with Donald Trump has pulled back a stump at the last handshake. He is a serial liar, surrounded by ideologues who understand power better than you do … and how to wield it, QED the last nine months.
And yet, here we are. Jeffries and Schumer fell into the same stupid, endless trap Democrats always find when facing Republicans of the MAGA era.