Summary
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar insist Democrats should demand major concessions if they help Republicans avoid a government shutdown.
With a narrow three-seat majority, Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a spending bill, but progressives argue the GOP must “sort themselves out” first.
They oppose Republican efforts to slash corporate taxes and gut federal agencies.
Concerns remain that even if Democrats secure agreements, the Trump administration might ignore them. Some moderate Democrats agree that Republicans must take responsibility for funding the government.
Its more complicated than that. Government shutdowns that are focused on gutting entitlements (as during the '13 shutdown lead by Ted Cruz and his House GOP lackeys) have been unpopular because the goal of the shutdown was unpopular. The GOP got the blame because they took the credit and insisted shutting down the gov to cut popular programs was good politics.
By contrast, the '07 threat by Dems not to raise the Debt Ceiling unless Bush agreed to timetables to pull troops out of Iraq was popular because the occupation had become such a rancid policy for Republicans to defend that extreme measures seemed justified.
They don’t have to craft the message. The message is crafted by the corporate hacks in Silicon Valley and piped through their social media / tabloid newspaper periodicals of record.
By contrast, Dems have gone out of their way to divorce themselves from friendly media - whether its left-wing podcasters or TikTok influencers or Daily Show anchors - for fear of facing any amount of criticism from a left wing source.
That’s what is really eating into the Dems’ reputation. They’re an entrenched minority party, perpetually safe in their gerrymandered districts but without a popular agenda to rally anyone behind. They’re a fully controlled opposition.