Max Notes
The government is about to be open for business again. Phew. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Democratic Party for standing its ground and fighting for the American people.
(Hang on. I’m getting a call…)
Sorry. That was reality checking in. A handful of Democratic senators strategically broke rank—just as GOP insiders predicted they would, exactly when they said they would—and voted on a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through January with exactly zero concessions. Sorry, check that. The Republicans agreed to take a vote in December on Obamacare subsidies. With all of their fingers crossed behind their backs on that one, the Republicans, minus Rand Paul (don’t make me start liking you Rand), voted with the breakaway pack of Ds to open back up.
Listen. Don’t be mad. No shutdown has ever elicited a real win for either side. Ever. And this one was never going to work for one simple reason:
Republicans don’t give a flying fuck about poor people.
They held a literal Gatsby-themed party during the shutdown. Started canceling flights. Actually fought the courts and the states over funding SNAP benefits with money that was literally appropriated for that very use. They don’t care. They’ve never cared. They never will. It was a half-baked plan that was never going to work, but let’s congratulate them for trying to not really succeed but look like they were doing something. The breakaway faction was mostly Democrats who aren’t running for reelection, and John Fetterman who also has zero fucks to give and is basically a Republican at this point.
The whole thing was a sham. Schumer is concerned about his job. He’s getting crushed by outlets like The Daily Show on the regular and AOC is nipping at his heels. It’s the worst kept secret that he needed this, which is why he maintained the visual to the very end. Here’s the tell. HE’S THE LEADER. So his calculus was to look tough by looking weak. He started a fight he couldn’t win—that his constituents didn’t even know was possible—to fight for with a shutdown, only to create this theater that ends with him shooting himself in the head because it had to.
Ugh.
Let’s shift gears outside of the halls of Congress to check in on the power hungry pack of Democratic wolves vying for the spotlight in the anti-Trump attention economy. On opposite coasts, two governors are positioning themselves as the obvious choices to run against Donald Trump. Just ask them.
On the left coast we have Governor Handsome Newsome who has become a meme factory. He’s on every program imaginable, has a social post for every occasion and a memoir coming out next year. Nothing says I’m running for president more than a premature memoir of one’s career.
On the right coast we have Josh Shapiro who just picked up an early nod from a New York Times opinion writer who I’m about to stop following this instant, even though I really enjoyed his book on economics. Binyamin Appelbaum’s headline says it all: Mamdani Isn’t the Future of the Democrats. This Guy Is.
I’ve litigated Governor Handsome before and will be forced to do so repeatedly as the months wear on, but this is my first crack at Shapiro other than laughing at his Obama inspired rhetorical style. I’m familiar enough with Shapiro from the veep vetting he briefly went through and his willingness to support jailing Pro-Palestinian student protestors. And I’m aware that he has a reputation of being a full-blown narcissist and political chameleon with no true belief system other than what the polls show.
So because I so thoroughly enjoyed Applebaum’s economic writing before, I was anxious to know what the fuss was about that makes Shapiro so doggarn appealing. And here is his most forceful statement in the piece:
“He has a record of delivering clever political compromises, and he’s good at making centrism sound urgent. His political persona is a constant performance of vigor. As he reminds Pennsylvanians at every opportunity, he gets stuff done. His most celebrated achievement is reopening a collapsed highway in just 12 days.”
Oh. In other words, the things that people say are his worst qualities as governor of Pennsylvania are exactly what Applebaum is saying we need.
The Democratic wins—including but not limited to Zohran Mamdani—that resulted from an intense focus on economic justice pale in comparison to someone who makes centrism sound urgent. This on top of Democrats finally winning the messaging battle, to my great surprise, over the government shutdown only to cave to the Republicans for exactly nothing in return.
No party is more capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory than this modern Democratic Party.
