Democrats are winning the shutdown fight

In the budget showdown with Republicans, Democrats had two urgent tasks.

The first—and most critical—was to rebuild credibility with their own base after their disastrous cave in March. In over 20 years of covering Democratic politics, I’ve rarely seen such raw fury at party leaders. It mirrored the resentment that fueled the tea party’s purge of establishment Republicans in the late 2000s.

And it isn’t just vibes. “Democrats now express more disapproval of their party’s congressional leadership than at any time in several decades,” reported the Pew Research Center. Decades. Just 21% of Americans view Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer favorably—including only 35% of Democrats. That trust deficit demanded a response.

The second task was to reassert the Democratic Party as the one actu