On Wednesday night, US President Donald Trump signed legislation ending the longest federal government shutdown in American history. It was a perplexing end to a strange saga. Both the Republican and Democratic parties gambled, and their perspicacity will be tested against reality – and each other – primarily in next November’s midterm vote.
Mr Trump and his Republicans showed no signs of wearying from the confrontation after 38 days of growing pain, primarily among constituencies Democrats either already command or believe rightly belong to them. Eight Democratic senators broke ranks through a deal with Republicans that gave them very little, including on the supposedly central issue of health care.
It’s especially puzzling because the party appeared to be winning the political battle, with key national polls showing that Americans blamed Mr Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. And the compromise came in the wake of an astonishingly comprehensive, indeed virtually total, Democratic sweep in elections around the country last week. Democrats won where they were presumed to have little chance and prevailed by overwhelming margins where they seemed likely to win.
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