Washington Wrap: Baser Instincts

A government shutdown — it certainly wasn’t what President Trump had in mind when he prepared to mark his first year in office. But in the end he had to cancel the party at Mar-a-Lago and stay in the White House while lawmakers tried to pass a bill that would reopen the government.

A shutdown happens when lawmakers can’t agree on a spending bill to fund the government. The sticking point this time is the fate of 800000 children of undocumented immigrants. Democrats and Republicans have different ideas about how to resolve their legal status and members of both parties voted against a compromise spending bill that would have kept the government running.

Truth be told Trump is getting a taste of his own medicine. While everyone admits that resolving the status of the “dreamers” doesn’t justify shutting down the government there’s no denying that Trump failed to internalize one of the fundamentals of governance — politics necessitates the art of the compromise. It seems as if nothing matters to the president except winning — that he doesn’t care about making the people happy as much as seeing his rivals defeated. Under those circumstances it’s proven impossible to get the ten Democratic votes he needs to get the government up and running again.

Which brings us to the more fundamental dynamic at play here: Trump is basically captive to his voter base. With a meager popularity rating of about 40% a significant portion of the country opposes his policies creating a situation where the president is obligated to his voters — but to them only. So if the base is not interested in say legalizing the children of illegal immigrants Trump will oppose that law — notwithstanding recent comments that he wants to formulate a bipartisan “bill of love” that would offer them legal status.