I had some further conversations this afternoon about the Dems’ strategy on the coming shutdown fight. They basically just confirmed the outlines of what I discussed in the two posts I did earlier today, but with some additional detail and color. One point I heard from one of my colleagues is how much Senate Dems seem to be unified on this strategy — even Elizabeth Warren, who recently had been arguing that there was no point participating in budget negotiations if the White House is not following the budget. She too seems to have shifted to the “give us back the Obamacare subsidies” position.

So what are Senate Democrats thinking exactly? How can this make sense?

I got asked this this afternoon. And I think it’s actually pretty clear what they’re thinking if you look at all the pieces on the playing board. There’s actually a decent logic to it. I just think it’s a bad logic.

I’ve gotten some rather heated responses to today’s Backchannel. The one point which I think merits a response is people saying that I’m not proposing any alternative. I saw that as implicit. But fair enough. Some say I’m just saying shut things down permanently. That latter claim isn’t true. But the first point is fair so let me address it.

Donald Trump is currently governing far outside the constitutional order. We’re operating in a constitutional interregnum. The constitutional order may and I think will come back into force. But right now we’re operating far, far outside of it. The president has seized the power of the purse from Congress. He is depriving states of their sovereignty and liberties by invading them with the U.S. military. He is threatening budgetary cutoffs to assert policy control over areas of governance the president has zero authority over. I could list 10 other forms of extra-constitutional rule and I would still leave many out.

Kate and Josh discuss the short-lived Trump death rumors, the end-of-year shutdown decision for Democrats and some eyebrow-raising GOP retirements.

I agonized for a bit about the point I’m about to discuss. But I didn’t agonize for long because I decided there was not much to agonize about. The topic is the September federal budget showdown, essentially a replay of the March “continuing resolution” drama in which Democrats had their first shot at real leverage against Donald Trump. As you’ll remember, Democrats under Chuck Schumer’s leadership decided to hold out for nothing. This was not only a missed opportunity. It’s fair to say it drove a catastrophic collapse of confidence in the Democratic Party’s elected leadership in Washington, DC., an impact that has been reverberating through national and opposition politics ever since.

Now we have a literal replay of that moment. The White House again needs Democrats’ vote in the Senate for a continuing resolution to keep the government open. Democratic leaders have been insisting they won’t make the same mistake again, and recent reports suggest President Trump’s increasingly aggressive attempts to seize budget authority from Congress all but assure a government shutdown at the end of the month. But a closer look suggests that Senate Democrats will insist on no meaningful brakes on Trump’s lawless actions and may, perversely, help him hold Congress next year.