Joel Payne, the chief communications officer of MoveOn, one of the groups behind the ‘No Kings’ rallies, says the episode had reassured a skeptical base that Democrats were beginning to function as “a real opposition party.”
“Nobody’s satisfied with anything,” he says, but voters were “encouraged and buoyed by the fact that Democrats are learning the lessons of the last 15 months, they’re adjusting accordingly, and they’re showing more spine.”
By agreeing to reopen the government without securing policy changes, however, Democrats may have surrendered the most powerful tool available to a minority party: the threat of continued disruption. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House, future funding for immigration enforcement could be approved along party lines through reconciliation, which bypasses the Senate filibuster.
Even some Democrats acknowledge the risk. The shutdown, they argue, was always an imperfect instrument, one that could elevate an issue and shift public sentiment but not necessarily deliver immediate legislative wins. In that sense, the outcome mirrors the party’s last shutdown fight, when Democrats demanded an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies but ultimately reopened the government without securing them, prompting frustration within their ranks.
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