Opinion | Not just any Democrat will do

The shutdown is over.

Well, not officially, but it’s over. Seven Democrats and a Dem-caucusing independent caved, providing Republicans with the eight votes necessary to shove through a funding bill that will eventually reopen the government.

Once again, Republicans’ will to do the wrong thing was greater than Democrats’ to do the right thing.

Amazing how often that happens. With Medicare-for-all. With Senate representation for Puerto Rico and D.C. With revamping of the U.S. Supreme Court. With simply seating a properly nominated Supreme Court justice.

Every single time, when the fight got hard, there were just enough Democrats willing to tuck tail and run to give Republicans another win. Just enough Democrats are willing to believe that this time the GOP Lucys won’t move the football.

It’s coming again, sure as you’re reading this.

There will be no negotiation over Affordable Care Act subsidies—the lone concession that Democrats received for their spineless fold. Anyone with a working brain can see the end of this thing.

Republicans are going to renege. There’s going to be shock and outrage. Republicans and their media partners will not care. They’ll spin it in the dumbest possible way. Four million Americans will lose health care coverage. The costs of insurance premiums will go up substantially for all of us.

It’ll probably end up being Obama’s fault somehow.

Because this is how bad the Democrats are at messaging. Even when every single fact is on their side—and the facts were decidedly on their side—they can’t even get their own caucus to buy in.

I want you to consider what was happening. Take a step back. Consider all of the facts. And behold the breathtaking failure that the Democrats snatched from the jaws of accomplishment.

You have a country that is extremely angry with its current president, because that guy has failed to do anything that he promised he was going to do. (Probably because he lacks both the intelligence and the will to do any of those things.) This guy, whose policies have driven up prices and bankrupted American farmers and businesses, was publicly snatching food from the mouths of hungry children and poor people. At the same time, his party’s disastrous spending bill, which included ridiculous tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations at the expense of health care subsidies for the poor and working class, was in the beginning stage of jacking up monthly premiums from barely affordable to “I guess we’ll just die” rates.

For 41 days, the Democrats told everyone who would listen that they simply could not stand aside and allow this pain to fall upon good Americans. That this was a fight they wouldn’t abandon. That this was a fight they were in until the end.

Or until the airports got really busy.

I mean, people starving because food stamps were cut off was one thing. But long lines and cancelled flights, pfft, what are we, some sort of third-world country?

So, seven of them caved. Like sniveling, pathetic cowards.

Because more wasn’t demanded of them.

I’ve been preaching for some time now about the absolute necessity of researching and voting for the right people. For not simply voting for the party-affiliated candidate. To demand more. To vote for the people who best represent you and who have the best answers to your issues.

For most of you, particularly the working class and poor, that will be a Democrat. It just needs to be the right Democrat. We have to stop electing weak, ineffective, soft candidates and choose people who will fight with intelligence and grit.

Look, let’s keep in mind the reality here. The things that were at the center of this fight—food stamps, health care subsidies, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—none of them would exist without Democrats, without a progressive party that governs based on morals and decency. A party that made sure the poor have food on the table and access to medical care. A party that said senior citizens deserved to live with dignity and some security.

But what happened with the shutdown cave should highlight the fact that it’s not enough to simply elect Democrats. You have to demand more. You have to demand a commitment, a willingness to fight.