The shutdown fight has left Democrats with few options, and none of them are good.

Faced with President Trump’s refusal to negotiate, they can either cave after weeks of tough talk and support the Republicans’ spending bill, or they can hold firm against it and watch the government shut down.

The first option is politically fraught, providing an endorsement, however reluctant, of the Republicans’ go-it-alone budget strategy while ensuring a sharp backlash from a liberal base that wants to see Democrats fighting tooth and nail against the president.

The second is practically perilous, since a shutdown is guaranteed to hurt the economy — a dynamic Democrats have invoked over a long history of battling with Republicans to keep the government open.

Over the long term, none of that may matt

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