I don’t know if you can read this behind the paywall, but Ezra Klein has a great piece in today’s NYT arguing that conditions have changed since last spring when Senator Schumer refused to back a government shutdown, and was much criticized (I and Klein believe unfairly) by many Democratic elected officials for doing so. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/opinion/trump-senate-democrats-shutdown.html. Among them, the courts are no longer uniformly stopping Trump, DOGE is a shadow of itself, and markets are not in turmoil (at least not until they wake up to the inflationary impact of the Fed’s loss of independence). For these reasons, Democrats this time around have to stand up to Trump, even at the cost of a government shutdown when funding expires on September 30, to wake up the public that what has been happening to America is not only not normal, but dangerous, and at least some it has to stop before the government opens again.
But as Klein makes clear, Democrats need to have a shutdown strategy: a simple, compelling list of items they can present to the American people, as government services grind to a halt, the airlines shut down, etc. – all the bad things that happen in an extended government shutdown – as reasons to blame Trump and Republicans for the funding stalemate. Otherwise, when times get tough and if Democrats fold, they and the country will be even worse off and Trump will only be further emboldened.
What Klein does not do, however, is provide a compelling list of two or three items the Democrats want as the price for ending any shutdown. Why two or three? Because the list has to be short enough so that it’s items are credibly non-negotiable, and Democrats can actually win on. And, I would add, the list can’t only be negative things, i.e. telling Trump what not to do, but affirmative things that would make this country and its people better off. In other words, a list worth fighting for, while also telling the public that there’s a whole of other things that need to be done, but that will be for the mid-terms.
If you agree with this thought process, what two or three items would you suggest? I’ll give you a first draft of two, which address real problems that affect most Americans and ask for things that I believe would resonate with the public and make it politically impossible for Trump and Congressional Republicans to resist. I haven’t settled on a third, because there are so many other things that could resonate broadly, I’m just not as sure about which one of them as I am about the first two:
1. To address crime (which generally has been falling but is still too high): Commit to not declaring war on American cities by sending in the National Guard AND INSTEAD fund 100,000 (pick a higher number if you want) more cops in the highest crime cities (many of them in red states, not just in blue ones).
2. To prevent needless deaths and illnesses this winter: Reverse the anti-vaccine craziness at HHS, and allow every American who wants one to obtain a free COVID booster, while restoring funding for future mRNA vaccine research, which Trump’s Operation Warp Speed green lit during Trump 1.0
In short, COPS and SHOTS. Something easy to put on a bumper sticker, and something the public can understand.
I didn’t put rollback of tariffs on the list, because there is still a chance the Supreme Court will do that for us. I didn’t put “stop corruption,” because that’s so endemic in this Administration that there is no way Trump would agree to it, nor is it something that I’m convinced a lot of swing voters care about. I didn’t put “release the Epstein files” on the list, because there is a good chance, with elections for open House seats coming up, that there will be enough votes in the House by the end of September to make that happen. Didn’t add stop the ICE raids because Trump will never agree to that, and however deplorable the raids are, they are supported by too many voters (though thankfully, apparently, not a majority).
I would love to see other ideas from readers in the comments, or better yet, in messages to key members of Congress. And also, your broader thoughts about what Ds must be doing in coming weeks are welcome.
I think shots and cops is brilliant. If I were to add a third it would be stop inflation. The latter will likely pick up in response to tariffs at least temporarily.
I hit post too soon. The last sentence in the third paragraph should be,
Stopping research on vaccines will condemn many of us to an early death. It is certainly true that "We're all gonna die", but I would rathe it be later than sooner.