Since President Donald Trump entered office for the second time earlier this year, Democratic politicians and pundits have loved to suggest the party’s ideological divides have become secondary to a split between those in the party who want to battle Trump’s authoritarian impulses and those who want to continue practicing politics as usual.
But convincing rank-and-file Democrats ideology isn’t correlated to a willingness to fight Trump will get harder after Sunday night, when a trio of Senate moderates seemingly negotiated ending the ongoing government shutdown without Democrats achieving any of their stated policy goals and at a moment where the party seemed to have a clear political advantage.
The deal was negotiated by three moderates — Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both Democrats from New Hampshire — and was backed in the Senate by five other moderates. (You can quibble if Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia is a moderate, but the others proudly wear the label.) There’s a very good chance Democratic primary voters pick up one message from the end of the shutdown showdown: Moderates simply will not go to the mat to fight Trump in the way progressives will.
