Contrary to the parenthetical in this entry's title, I don't feel completely fine. I'm a little under the weather right now, which is incredibly annoying, being that I was just sick a few weeks ago. Usually I get at least, like, a three or four month buffer between illnesses. So, this is complete bullshit, as far as I'm concerned. It's just a cold, the type of thing that will pass in a few days, but a few days have not passed yet, so here I am, sniffling and snorting, sucking on cough drops, and rubbing my nose raw with tissues. The worst part is that it's really affecting my sleep. I actually feel pretty good during the day, and then at night, as my caffeine and adrenaline levels wane, my symptoms become much more acute (which isn't cute). I have this super irritating prickly-throated cough, and that's what makes it so hard to sleep -- both because it's just hard to fall asleep when you're coughing and because I'm sleeping in the guest room, so as not to disturb S with my hacking. Our guest bed is fine, but it's a bit like a hotel bed to me. It's just not comfortable as my actual bed because nothing ever is.
In better news, the government shutdown has final ended, which means things will at least move in the direction or normality, if not completely "get back to normal," again. This is a good thing, in my not-so-humble opinion, as I do not share the consternation of many on the left that this was some sort of grave capitulation by the ever feckless Democrats. If only they would just stand up to Trump! The obvious truth is the Dems were never going to get what they want -- a renewal of expiring health care subsidies -- this way. The reason being is simple: Shuttering the federal government hurts Democratic constituents way more than those of Republicans. That's it. That's the whole ballgame. You can't compel somebody into a deal they don't want, if the deal not going through will be worse for you than it will be for them. "Give us what we want or things are really gonna suck for us" is not a great negotiating tactic when the other side wants things to suck for you.
To be sure, a government shutdown is bad for almost everybody, but think about whom it most negatively affects. I'd say there are three many groups: 1) federal workers who are laid off, furloughed, or not paid during a shutdown; 2) recipients of essential federal aid (e.g., SNAP benefits); 3) airport travelers whose flights are canceled or delayed due to insufficient airport staffing. All three of these groups are more left than they are right, as I lay out below.
1) Not only does Trump not care about the vast majority of federal employees, but he just spent the first six months of his presidency completely gutting the federal workforce. The fact that so many thousands more were not getting paid during the shutdown probably made him less inclined to negotiate a stoppage, not more.
2) Ironically, there are probably more total Republican voters who benefit from SNAP than Democratic voters, but the only ones that Trump cares about, his hardcore base, have already demonstrated that they care much more about the cultural and spiritual gains they get from Trump than any material goods they lose. They feel seen and validated by Trump. In their minds, he elevated them from disrespected cultural losers into a social force the liberal elitists have no choice but to reckon with. To them, that's worth losing benefits. They probably dismiss all that as a hoax, anyway... as they take out a second mortgage to pay for their increased health insurance deductibles.
3) Obviously, people of all political stripes use airports. But who do you think travels more, highly educated, upper-middle class urbanites and suburbanites, or less educated, working-class rural folks? Which of these is the base for which political party again?
So, yeah, I'm glad that eight Democratic senators broke rank and voted to get things moving again. It won't even be a big political hit for the Dems, unless they self-obsess about what a terrible capitulation it was, which certain members of the party seem intent on doing. They succeeded in bringing the issue of expiring healthcare subsidies to the forefront of many voters minds, and now they can campaign on that without the pall of a shutdown eclipsing everything else. One thing Trump does that I think is pretty effective politically is to just declare victory for everything no matter what happens. It's phony and delusion and often very bad for the country, so I wouldn't like it if Dems did this too, but I think they could stand to learn something from it. It's hard to make progress on your political agenda when seemingly one of the core tenets of your party is that progress can never be made.
Until next time...
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