In the second week of the government shutdown, both sides are fully in the midst of playing the blame game, trying to convince voters that the other side is responsible for the government coming to a screeching halt.

Republicans are claiming that Democrats are forcing a shutdown to score political points, while Democrats claim Republicans are unreasonably refusing to negotiate.

One thing is clear to me: Democrats forced a government shutdown because it is the only way for them to bring about negotiations with the little power that they hold. I understand why they did it, but that doesn’t make it right.

There is a lesson here for Democrats. When lawmaking doesn’t have to go through Congress, the minority party loses much of its influence. And while Republicans are allowing President Donald Trump to rule by executive order, Democrats should remember they did the same with former President Joe Biden. Congress has been letting us down for years, and now we have a shutdown because of it.

Democrats were wrong to force this government shutdown

To some extent, the only way Democrats can secure a seat at the negotiating table is by forcing a government shutdown. The legislative branch has been mostly sidelined during Trump’s second term in favor of Trump’s preference for rule by executive authority, which Republicans seem happy to allow. When Congress doesn’t have to work, its members have little interest in doing so.

And because Republicans control the House, the Senate and an ambitious presidential administration, there is little room for Democrats to act. So now, the only measure they seem to be able to use is forcing a shutdown in order to drag Republicans to the negotiating table.

But that fact doesn’t justify holding the government hostage in order to make headway. Democrats are now reaping what they’ve sown after years of Congress ceding lawmaking authority to the president. They were entirely complicit in that erosion of Congress’ strength, as well as Biden’s own abuse of ruling through executive authority.

Biden had no problem attempting to push through vaccine mandates and a student loan forgiveness scheme through executive order. The fact that courts rule against Biden's vaccine and student loan plan shows how Democrats, too, have pushed the needle of what can be accomplished by the president alone.

Democrats did, though, rely less on presidential orders than Republicans have this year, but there was also very little good-faith negotiations when Biden was in office.

The only reason we're even having this shutdown fight now is because Democrats crammed Affordable Care Act subsidy extensions into the American Rescue Plan, and later extended them through the misnomered Inflation Reduction Act, all without a single Republican vote.

If the charge is that Republicans aren't willing to negotiate in good faith with Democrats during this shutdown, Democrats can point to how they passed the ACA subsidies as the reason Republicans are now unwilling to discuss extending them.

Republicans should not cave to Democrats on ACA

Selling a shutdown as being the fault of the governing power is rhetorically simple but politically complicated. Republicans need only to point to the fact that all of their members (except Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky) have voted to avert or end the shutdown to put the scrutiny right back on the Democrats who voted no.

Democrats had to have recognized this themselves. After all, they made the same accurate calculation when roles were reversed during the Obama presidency. That shutdown, also related to the Affordable Care Act, was caused by Republicans making extreme demands against complete Democratic control of the federal government. After just 16 days, Republican approval ratings had hit record lows and they caved in exchange for minimal concessions.

As Trump has put it rather bluntly himself, a shutdown does not mean Republicans are out of tools to pressure Democrats with. They actually may even have more. Trump can strategically taper off funding to programs that Democrats are more favorable toward.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said on Truth Social on Oct. 2. Hours before the shutdown deadline at midnight Sept. 30, he said, “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns."

Despite all of this, Democrats have decided to roll the dice anyway. Due to political pressures from within their own party, particularly progressives who criticized the last deal that leadership made to avert a shutdown, Democrats seem to feel obligated to “do something,” even if they stand to gain little from it.

I lament the broken balance of power within our federal government as much as anyone, but now that we are here, Democrats need to accept that this is the situation and turn their focus to winning elections if they want to change the status quo.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I hope Democrats learn from this shutdown. But we know that they won't. | Opinion

Reporting by Dace Potas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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