Building on what Adam and Betty have posted this today, let me state without equivocation that this is exactly what needs to happen. Senate Dems need to just fucking YOLO and release documents like Feinstein did. House Democrats on the Nunes cover-up committee need to do the same. And we don’t need to make any deals to get DACA through- 83% of the country want it done. Republicans run the House and Senate. They have their guy in the White House. If the government shuts down, it is on them.
What Democrats ALSO need to do, and this is very, very, important, because our media is a fucking colossal waste of space, is every single time they are questioned about a government shutdown, they need to stop and state loudly and clearly- “The Democrats do not have control of the House, Senate, or White House. If there is a government shutdown, for whatever reason, that is the fault of the Republicans.”
The other day, I was watch Rep. Joaquin Castro being interviewed by Kasie Hunt (who I believe was at one point Ron Fournier’s protege), and she asked the following question:
Hunt: “Is there any circumstance in which democrats could accept a wall on the Mexican border to pay for that wall in exchange for help these kids or do you think the government should shut down over that.”
Rep. Castro then went on to offer a “reasonable” answer. BZZZZZTTTT. Wrong. This should have been his response:
“I don’t support shutting down the government, nor do any Democrats, but we are not in charge of the House, Senate, or White House. If the government shuts down, this is because the Republicans chose to shut it down.”
And you say that over and over and over again, and even challenge the reporter to state that this is in fact correct. Because it is! The Republicans are terrified of being blamed for the inevitable shutdown when their caucus shits the bed, so they are already setting the stage to blame Democrats. If you need evidence, here is a clip of Sen. Tom Cotton doing just that:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are we going to have a government shutdown at the end of January?
COTTON: I don’t expect to have one. I certainly don’t want to have one, but if the Democrats want to shut down the government because they can’t get amnesty for illegal immigrants, then they’re going to have to defend those actions to the American people. They didn’t do that last month, and I suspect they didn’t do it because they know that amnesty for illegal immigrants without any real reform is not popular, and that it would be unhelpful to their cause.
You will not be surprised to learn that Stephanopoulos did not challenge him on this assertion. The time for niceties is long gone. It’s time for some scorched earth, and it’s time to stop letting the media and Republicans get away with this.