A Quick Take on Team Cave’s Big Win
I have what I suspect is a somewhat counterintuitive take on the deal Senate Democrats’ Team Cave made with the Republican Senate caucus tonight. This is an embarrassing deal, a deal to basically settle for nothing. It’s particularly galling since it comes only days after Democrats crushed Republicans in races across the country. Election Day not only showed that Democrats had paId no price for the shutdown. It also confirmed the already abundant evidence that it has been deeply damaging for Donald Trump. But even with all this, I think the overall situation and outcome is basically fine. Rather than tonight’s events being some terrible disaster, a replay of March, I see it as the glass basically being two-thirds or maybe even three-quarters full.
I don’t think anyone has been more adamant than me about how essential it is for Democrats to fight, not only to use what little power they currently have in Washington to secure specific things but to motivate voters and battle Trump by engaging in the performance of power. My writing on this has been crystal clear.
Here’s what I see.
There was a legitimate party rebellion after the March debacle. Democratic voters demanded fight. When the time came, Democrats fought. They held out for 40 days, the longest shutdown standoff in history. They put health care at the center of the national political conversation and inflicted a lot of damage on Trump. At 40 days they could no longer hold their caucus together. And we got this.
That’s a sea change in how the party functions in Congress. And that’s a big deal. Many people see it as some kind of epic disaster and are making all the standard threats about not voting or not contributing or whatever. That’s just not what I see. It’s a big change in the direction of the fight we need in the years to come that just didn’t go far enough. Yet.
I suspect some will say I’m making excuses for the Senate caucus. Not at all. You want to primary Tim Kaine (D-VA)? Great. I already said on Bluesky that should happen. Twenty-four senators demand a new caucus leader? I love it. I’m not making excuses for anyone. Quite the opposite. I take this position because I really don’t care that much about the individual players. I have much bigger ambitions. We’re in a battle for at least the rest of this decade that will require a very different kind of Democratic Party — not one that is more right or left but one that is both comfortable using power and knows how to do it. So I’m going to take this big step in the right direction I’ve seen over the last month and pocket it and move on to the next battle. Meanwhile, keep purging all the folks who can’t get with the new program. If a senator is from a comfortably Blue State and wasn’t vocally in favor of fighting this out, primary them — toss them overboard. After March, Dick Durbin (D-IL) realized he needed to retire. Let’s see some more retirements. But don’t tell me nothing has changed or that this is some cataclysmic disaster. It’s not. This accomplished a lot. It demonstrated that Democrats can go to the mat when the public is behind them and not pay a political price. It dramatically damaged Donald Trump. It cued up the central arguments of the 2026 campaign. It just didn’t go far enough. The ball was fumbled at the end. So we need to demand more.
I’ll note two additional points.
The December vote on Obamacare funding is basically a fake one. But it will show yet again how absolutely determined Republicans are to make people’s health care costs go through the roof. The upshot of the shutdown is that Democrats now own the affordability issue, and they’ve focused it on health care coverage, which Republicans want to make more expensive or take away altogether. That vote keeps it there. So will the huge price hikes millions will be feeling by December. Also, if I’m understanding the deal right this continuing resolution goes through January. So there’s another bite of the apple in just a couple of months.
