There’s a quiet but intense debate going on today in America, over how and whether the country will function over the next few years.
Despite Republicans having an ostensible House majority for the last two years, it has been Democrats who have done all the actual governing. More House Democrats than House Republicans have voted for the bills funding the government, authorizing our national defense programs and raising the debt ceiling. In short, the House Republican caucus has been so dysfunctional that neither Kevin McCarthy nor Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could have kept the lights on without Democratic votes.
There is no reason to think the next Congress — with an even narrower House Republican majority — will be any different. So the question is, should congressional Democrats continue to bail out Republicans, or should they let them sink or swim on their own?
If Johnson wants to do something that’s good for America, shouldn’t Democrats lend him their support regardless of whether his own caucus backs him or not? Shouldn’t Democrats act responsibly even when Republicans won’t?
Surprisingly, there’s a correct answer here. And it comes, of all places, from the field of addiction recovery.
For the last two years, Democrats have thought they were acting in the country’s best interests by helping Republicans govern. They have not been. They meant well, but they have actually been protecting voters from the consequences of Republican dysfunction and enabling bad Republican behavior.
Republican politicians are now addicted to drama, outrage and “owning the libs.” When you shield addicts from the consequences of their actions, you’re not doing them any favors. All you are doing is enabling their addiction.
The same goes for their voters. Many are hooked on the political performance and continue to elect unserious, bomb-throwing zealots who pander on social media for the clicks and the television appearances. But Congress is not a reality television show. In real life, dysfunction has consequences.
The country won’t be on the road to recovery until it is allowed to experience those consequences. If that means giving free rein to the collection of clowns with flamethrowers that now passes for the Republican Party, so be it. Democrats should resist the urge to intervene when the inevitable happens and they set themselves on fire.
For the next two years, Democrats have no responsibility to govern. They should focus on politics instead and take a longer view of the country’s best interests. If, for example, House Democrats had allowed Republican dysfunction to shut down the government in September, they almost certainly would have won a House majority in November. A few weeks of furloughed workers and shuttered national parks would have been a small price to pay for an effective check against Donald Trump’s plans for an American autocracy. Democrats should be practicing tough love and allowing Republicans to inflict pain on themselves, even if that also inflicts some pain on the country.
This isn’t to say they should let Trump permanently wreck America just to teach his voters a lesson — an approach advocated by some angry progressives. If there is an issue that could do irreversible damage to America’s future, then Democrats should be prepared to step in. But, as a general rule, if Republicans can end a crisis just by acting like responsible adults, Democrats should stand by and do nothing at all, for just as long as it takes.
Both of these situations will come up over the next few weeks. On Jan. 1, 2025, the debt ceiling kicks back in, so one of the first jobs for the new Congress will be raising the borrowing limit. Since an American debt default would be a disaster from which we might never fully recover, Democrats need to prevent that at all costs. If that means backing House Speaker Mike Johnson when Republicans won’t — as it very well might — Democrats should be prepared to do that.
But government shutdowns are a different story. On Dec. 20, the government’s funding will run out. Some Republicans are already planning to vote to shut down the government. Democrats, on the other hand, appear willing to help the Speaker pass a continuing resolution, especially if they can pry some funds loose for disaster relief in the process.
That would be a mistake. This time, Democrats should refuse to save Republicans from themselves. Keeping the government open and finding funds for disaster relief are the responsibility of the Republican House majority, not the Democratic minority. If the government gets shut down until sometime in the next Congress or there’s no money for hurricane cleanup, then either Republicans will learn responsibility or their voters will learn that Republicans are feckless and can’t be trusted to govern. Either way, that’s a win for the country.
Politics as usual is dead. In the age of MAGA, congressional Democrats are resistance fighters, and resistance fighters are often called on to make difficult and distressing choices. Trump has a lot of things planned for America — foolish things, dangerous things, things he often promised but that many of his voters don’t want and never believed he would do. Democrats should not be enabling him by spending their political capital to make all this a little more bearable.
Having won undivided power, Trump Republicans are like the dog that has caught the car. If the government now lurches from one pointless crisis to the next, or if Trump’s plans are disastrous, the Democrats’ one job is to make sure voters know who is to blame and what they can do about it.
Chris Truax is an appellate attorney who served as Southern California chair for John McCain’s primary campaign in 2008.
