Congressional Democrats on Monday, the third day of the government shutdown, completely caved to the Republicans—getting absolutely nothing policy-wise for their efforts.
And perhaps they jeopardized their midterm election chances in a volatile voting year, hurting House and Senate Democrats’ chances alike. But it also provides Republicans with a much-needed overarching theme for the midterm elections, which is that Democrats favor illegal aliens over Americans, while Republicans put Americans first. Party-wide, top Republicans on Monday were fired up after the Schumer Shutdown ended in absolute utter failure for the Democrats.
“Millions of Americans have watched Democrats resist and obstruct President Trump at every move and they watched Democrats put politics above people by voting for this shutdown,” Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), told Breitbart News on Monday afternoon. “For the Democrats who chose once again to jeopardize government funding, November is going to be a wake-up call.”
President Donald Trump and Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are jubilant after this complete and total victory, as Democrats offered unconditional surrender just three days into their ill-advised government shutdown strategy to try to push for an amnesty for illegal alien recipients of the expiring DACA program. As the government reopens Monday evening after the Senate first passed a government funding bill followed by the House, Republicans party-wide are salivating at the political opportunities that lay ahead in November of this year.
“The pathetic Schumer shutdown has made one thing crystal clear to all Americans heading into the 2018 midterms elections,” Dave Bossie, the president of Citizens United and former deputy campaign manager for President Trump’s 2016 general election campaign, told Breitbart News. “The Democrats’ number one priority is to protect 700,000 illegal aliens ahead of 300 million Americans. President Trump is fighting for all Americans first. His priority is making sure that 300 million Americans are far more wealthy, far more secure, and far more optimistic about the future than they were during Barack Obama’s failed presidency and Nancy Pelosi’s failed tenure as House Speaker.”
Democrats were on a roll before this shutdown, barreling toward what appeared to be an inevitable shot at taking back the majority in the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections–until they shut the government down on Friday night.
They had won Virginia’s contested gubernatorial election in a blowout in November, then won a special election for U.S. Senate in Alabama. Then they won a statehouse race in Wisconsin before shutting the federal government down–a battle they have by all accounts now lost badly.
Now, Democrats have emerged walking into the midterms with serious brand damage–as they are now known as the party of illegal aliens over American citizens in this debate, particularly as Republicans frame themselves as the defenders of America and Americans first. But more importantly, the Democrats have cast themselves as the party of chaos, instability, and uncertainty while Republicans can frame themselves as the party of certainty, steadiness, and stability.
Ed Rollins, the co-chairman of the Great America Alliance which is backing many GOP candidates nationwide this year, said in an interview:
The premise of [Democrats] shutting the government down was they tried to add legislation that wasn’t there, and they just didn’t have the votes for it in the House and the Senate—and under this circumstance they look foolish. They totally inconvenienced the country. They basically added to the disgust the country has—you got an 18 or 16 percent approval rating in Congress and this behavior continues to go on. If you want DACA, you ought to put a bill through and see if they can pass it. If you want immigration reform, put a bill up and see if you can pass it. But at the end of the day they can’t do that. But they just delayed this for a couple weeks here, and I think to a certain extent the longer this goes on the more damage it does to them.
As such, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)—the official party arm charged with winning House elections and holding the majority for Republicans—is much more confident in their mission moving into this year.
“Democrats in the House and Senate put soldiers, children, and seniors at risk shutting down the government over a deadline that is still over a month away,” John Rogers, the NRCC’s executive director, told Breitbart News. “Worse is that the illegal immigration debate has absolutely nothing to do with funding the government. It’s sad that they are playing politics with people’s lives, and I think voters will see through this political ploy.”
The Schumer Shutdown is perhaps even more beneficial to efforts by Republicans to unseat Senate Democrats in the midterm elections and embolden their U.S. Senate majority. The GOP already had a favorable map walking into the midterms, and moderate Democratic senators like Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and Joe Donnelly in Indiana were already feeling the pain ahead of their re-election bids this year in states in which Trump trounced Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016’s presidential campaign.
All of those four red state Democrats voted against the government shutdown on Friday night, joined by newly elected Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL)—who just won a special election in Alabama at the end of last year amid all the troubles that came out about conservative GOP nominee Roy Moore. But other Democratic senators up for re-election in Trump victory states–like Florida’s Bill Nelson or Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin or Montana’s Jon Tester or Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow or Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey–felt serious pain for nearly 72 hours as they saw their votes to shut down the federal government front and center in the national news—and empowered their 2018 GOP opponents.
“There’s simply no spinning this if you’re Caving Chuck,” Jason Miller, who was communications director for President Trump’s 2016 White House campaign, told Breitbart News. “The Schumer Shutdown is going to cost several Senate Democrats their jobs come November.”
The Great America Alliance, which Rollins chairs, has endorsed many of these red state Senate Democrats’ GOP opponents. “They are,” in a real bad spot after this walking into the midterms, Rollins said of those Democrats. “I’ve never believed you knock anyone out with one punch, but I think it’s a pattern. Each and every one of these vulnerable Democrats has a pattern. There’s a very clear line between what Republicans want and what Democrats want. Republicans want less government and want you to keep more of your taxes and immigration that takes the right people in and keeps out the wrong type of people. Democrats want to spent money on everything and want a policy that lets anyone and everyone come in—an amnesty policy. Overall, that’s part of the formulation of who they are—and they do this not just on one vote but on all sorts of a series of votes.”
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