It seems many Americans are not bothered by President Trump’s unapproved demolition of the East Wing of the White House, his use of the United States military to murder people on the high seas, his usurpation of the Department of Justice for personal retributive purposes, or his unconstitutional deployment of the National Guard in American cities. Contrary to their persistent handwringing over law and order, the Republican Party sits idly by as Trump mocks America’s historical commitment to the rule of law. According to the most recent World Justice Project “Rule of Law Index,” America is ranked 27th and has fallen more over the past year than all but Russia, Mexico, and Sudan. (https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/) Playing by the rules, adhering to due process, honoring equal protection, and upholding the sanctity of the courts—these relics have become punchlines in Trump’s apparent joke on America. The current government shutdown is an outgrowth of that ruse.
Democrats are fighting to preserve tax credits for the Affordable Care Act. Ironically, 80% of Affordable Care Act enrollees, the people for whom Democrats are advocating, live in states Trump won. (https://www.kff.org/quick-take/more-than-3-in-4-aca-marketplace-enrollees-live-in-states-won-by-president-trump-in-2024/?utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter) Nevertheless, the suspension of Congress and the president’s non-stop lying to the American public would not be occurring but for Trump’s erosion of traditional norms and disrespect for the law.
The president is heralded for his “art of the deal,” which sounds like compromise, but it’s not. In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump argued for leveraging the dealmaker’s advantage, which he insisted should be created through bravado and publicity, using the media to shape perception, and by embracing confrontation. Sound familiar? The book could just as easily have been called The Art of Bullying. Trump has demonstrated that he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals and that he will shamelessly crush even the slightest resistance at any cost.
Trump’s goal? First and foremost, he wants the world’s unwavering attention. Secondarily, he wants to reverse the New Deal.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, father of the New Deal, famously said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” That mindset guided American domestic policy for generations. Not anymore. In fact, Trump has mauled and twisted that perspective in pursuit of the opposite.
Trump knows that Democrats are guided by New Deal principles, by concern for their fellow Americans. But the president scoffs at those principles, using them to torment Democrats, turning their values against them. He knows that Democrats tend to play nice, which he interprets as weakness. He is betting that Democrats, out of compassion and concern, will cave on the current government shutdown.
Back in March of this year, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer prevented a government shutdown with the claim that his “job” was to “minimize the harms to the American people.” To his credit, Schmer is a bleeding heart, but that has become “the advantage” Trump is leveraging. Trump is toying with the Democrats, expecting them to do their “job” and cave to his bullying, lies, and manipulation, his tyrannical consolidation of power in the executive, all in the effort to garner attention for himself and reduce taxes on his fellow oligarchs.
But now that the line in the sand has been drawn, Democrats must not allow themselves to be dragged across it. Despite Speaker Mike Johnson’s stubborn insistence to the contrary, this is Trump’s Shutdown. He is the one responsible. He insists that Democrats do a deal now and settle on the terms later. Those terms will involve significant losses for millions of Americans. That is Trump’s idea of an artful deal, but it is not what Americans want.
According to Pew Research, a nonpartisan nonadvocacy organization, 53% of Americans say Trump is making government work worse, whereas only 27% say he is making it work better, with a trendline against the president. (https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/08/14/trumps-tariffs-and-one-big-beautiful-bill-face-more-opposition-than-support-as-his-job-rating-slips/) People are not happy with Congress these days, but more people blame Republicans than Democrats for the shutdown, and there is no reason to expect that to change. A Quinnipiac poll of October 22 shows that among independents (who number more than either Republicans or Democrats), 48% think Republicans are responsible for the shutdown, while only 32% think Democrats are more responsible. (https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3938)
An argument is circling in Washington that Democrats have made their point, so they should now help pass a continuing resolution. Nonsense. It is also said that Democrats need to stop talking about democracy and start talking about bread-and-butter issues. This shutdown is about bread-and-butter issues; it is about protecting the living standards and healthcare of everyday Americans; it is about pushing back against plutocracy; it is about preserving the balance of power in the federal government. Yes, it is about stopping Donald Trump. Trump lied about not touching the East Wing, just as he has lied about so much else, as he has lied about pretty much everything. He cannot be trusted, and Democrats need to proceed (or withhold their support) accordingly. Democrats must weigh short-term gain against the long-term pain of the American people.
The Republican partocracy controls the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court; together, they have abandoned custom, process, and the rule of law. What they are doing is much worse than temporarily closing the government; they are foreclosing democracy and the rule of law as we know it. They want us to look the other way as they steal the food off our tables. It has got to stop. Democrats must hold the line.
I take exception to your opening statement. As one of these/ those Americans I do NOT like any of what’s going on.
As a writer myself I understand the desire to hook my audience, to lure them to read further. Your statement is inflammatory. You have it in you to find a way to present solutions instead of pointing to our failures to cope with a maniac and his minions who have NOrespect or compassion for anyone or anything. I challenge you to do better.