Government shutdowns give everybody heartache. Democrats, Republicans, Representatives, Senators, Presidents and advisors, all have a hand in the painful missteps that lead to a shutdown.
The fact of the matter is Republicans have been in power in Congress through most of the last decade. In this year alone, the Republicans spent less time governing, and more time trying to figure out what it was their new president wanted from them. Much of the time spent by all involved has it been distracted by a huge investigation into the Presidential election and whether Russia colluded with the Trumps to influence the election. My gut tells me there was collusion and the money trails that are strewn all over the world on this from Trump-related entities are staggering.
Regardless, there seems to be an issue with all parties involved in the shutdown. The popular position today is to blame the Democrats for holding DACA to the latest CRs. The truth of the matter is the Republican controlled congress has yet to govern effectively. The Republican President has yet to govern effectively, and when he HAD to get a 60% margin to get the CR through, his self-proclaimed negotiating skills failed miserably.
Because of this, it is hard to blame the Republican leaders in Congress for being unable to get clear direction from the President, but neither of them has the courage to just go get a bipartisan agreement done regardless of the White House’s direction. Bold things that could be done in spite of a milk-toast leader in the white house would be to draft the strongest bipartisan bill that actually covered what I would guess is ~80+% of Americans that want DACA, CHIP funding and the BUDGET completed and passed. (How we have no budget a year in astounds me!)
So all that said… we’re still shut down… Trump has already got the country more mobilized than ever. That doesn’t bode well for any government official at this point, especially ones that are in control of the vote that can end the shutdown.