Future voters are watching.
We won.
Good. We should all be grateful for Democrats who held the line in the face of mounting pressure -- from the President right on down to the various Senators and Representatives from red districts. Call your guy or gal and say thanks. The messaging worked. The public (by-and-large) understood who was most to blame, and bludgeoned them at the polls. This mattered.
This is a big strategic victory. We should celebrate. We should be pleased.
But two things.
First, let's not miss this fantastic opportunity to communicate an important message related to the shutdown, which happens to highlight a major difference between progressives and the extreme right wingers today -- maybe the major message:
#1: Government has an important role to play in all of our lives.
In chats with friends and Facebook posts and letters to the editor over the coming days and weeks, let's make damn sure that point is not overlooked. In fact, let's lead with that point.
Rather than dancing in the endzone and rubbing Ted Cruz's nose in this defeat, let's really make it hurt by doing more than attacking his moronic strategy. Let's talk about the critical role that government plays in protecting and empowering the citizens enjoy of this country. Let's talk about all the things we've witnessed over the past few weeks -- the cancer patients and inaccessible national treasures and WIC kids and on and on and on -- you know the list -- that only happen because of government. Let's talk about how public safety, environmental protection, healthcare, finances, etc. were all affected negatively when the government's ability to function was threatened.
Let's state it loudly and clearly: government is imperfect but important. Government plays a positive role in each of our lives. And the government deserves to be run by responsible and intelligent people who believe in its importance.
Second, let's not high five so much that we forget what this all meant:
#2: There were no winners in this Republican debacle.
Let's be happy we won. But now that it's over, let's behave like this is the outcome we expected all along (bonus: it is). Let the independents watching see us as satisfied... but not childish. Let's repeat the themes that serve the party and the nation going forward:
it is right that we keep Obamacare intact. It is right that we not delay or defund a law intended to help so many. It is right that we maintain our credit rating and pay our bills, and future brinksmanship should not be tolerated as a device to force otherwise palatable legislation by a cabal of officials.
Every time we identify ourselves as "winners" we own the results of the status quo -- which is, after all, about all we protected here. We haven't gained any new progressive legislation. We haven't outlawed assault weapons or legalized gay marriage or ended oil subsidies or anything else even vaguely visible -- all we've "won" is a reprieve from awful backwards policies the other wide wanted. We can't expect the apolitical public to care much for this "victory" of ours and we risk overplaying our hand if we parade ourselves around too much glowing and taunting the other side about it.
But above all -- let's talk about the people who are really affected, the ones for whom NONE OF THIS WAS A WIN FOR ANYONE, and how they must now recover from Republicans' stupidity and nihilism. Let's talk about how pointless the entire exercise was, and how, while some furloughed workers will get backpay and some programs will have coffers refilled, others were affected in ways that aren't so easily made whole.
Let's talk about the little kids who get to go back to Head Start, some for the first time since October 1.
Let's talk about the workers at the National Cancer Institute heading back to their life-saving work.
Let's talk about the kids and pregnant moms who depend on WIC funding. Let's apologize to them for letting them down.
Again -- you know the list. Let's keep the focus there a little while longer, while the public is paying attention. Let's make sure we learn the lesson of this shutdown well -- that lives are impacted, that it's not just beltway politicking but real effects out in the heartland -- that we might not allow ourselves to go down this road again lightly.
This whole thing was a mess. We'll run ads and blame the GOP and laugh at Ted Cruz and his Tortilla Coast losers later. Plenty of time for all of that.
The opportunity before us right now is to talk about what this was really all about: how government helps people when it's done right, and how people are hurt when it's not.