MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: Stop calling it a "shutdown"
Making Republicans own the funding crisis, the made-for-TV military meeting, behind the scenes at the roots of fascism
THE GIST: No funding for fascism
Yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries went to the White House to meet with President Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off a government shutdown:
“We’re headed into the meeting,” Jeffries told reporters, “to have a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people.”
As expected, the meeting didn’t result in a deal, so a shutdown first thing Wednesday morning is likely (unless Senate Republicans decide to eliminate the filibuster). But Jeffries’ language here points to a big problem, regardless of what happens tomorrow: he’s telling the American public that Democrats share the responsibility for a shutdown — and the party desperately needs to flip the script.
Trump, on the other hand, put the blame squarely on his opposition. Simply by making any demands at all, he said, they are “threatening to shut down the Government of the United States.” No nuance there — just blame.
As messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio has explained, the Democrats need to call things what they are:
MAGA has turned our government into a weapon against our people. No funding for fascism. No dollars for dictators. No payouts for pedophiles. No complicity in the budget.
Right now, Democrats may think they’re getting away with a sin of omission by opting out of a bad plan — but they’re actually engaging in a sin of commission, playing along with a bad-faith Republican plot against America where Democrats will be cast as the bad guy, regardless. What they need to do is make it clear that Republicans are the sinners. And that means thinking bigger than just healthcare, as important as it is, and making the fight a referendum on the MAGA agenda.
The thing is, the Republican majority has all along held the power to shut down the government or to keep it open, whatever Democrats do. So what really matters is the messaging battle to come — making it clear to everyone just who owns this mess: the Republican Party and the fascism it wishes to fund.
BIGGER PICTURE: This really could have been an e-mail
Today, Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth gets his snap meeting with military top brass — all of them. The highly unusual all-hands assembly, called out of the blue last week without an agenda, initially struck fear into the hearts of invitees and observers. Was it going to be a mass firing? A loyalty oath? When Trump announced he’d join, speculation only increased.
But Hegseth reportedly means to talk to the assembled generals and admirals about grooming standards, and to deliver a pep talk about the “warrior ethos.” Perhaps not a lasting threat to the republic, but calling together this group — the most experienced officers, the managers who oversee hundreds of thousands of active-duty personnel on critical missions worldwide — for the stupidest possible reason, is at best a huge waste of time, money, and readiness — and a national security threat at worst. And it’s all for show.
But the show is worth it to Donald Trump. And Hegseth — a man wholly unqualified for the office he holds, save for his tenure as a television war hawk — was appointed to play a role in that show. He has, after all, installed a makeup studio at the Pentagon so he can always be ready for on-camera appearances. Grooming is everything.
The best model for understanding all this? June’s military parade. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat (who, Hegseth’s military has decided, is too dangerous for cadets to hear) told us then:
[Trump’s] vision of the military is to make it obedient not to the Constitution or loyal to the Constitution, but his person. And so he created the spectacle around himself. And that’s what strongmen do. They personalize power… literally everything has to be about the leader’s person…
[Trump] is an old-fashioned authoritarian… and he likes the specter of bodies arrayed before him at his command… Ideally, in a highly militarized kind of authoritarian place… the armed forces have been trained to step in a certain way, to march in a certain way, to do body discipline for the camera. Because they’re not doing that in combat.
In Trump’s imagination, after all, “national security” is just a catchphrase for justifying tariffs — say, on the movies. The military just needs to look the part.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT: Make Italy great again
Director Joe Wright’s new series Mussolini: Son of the Century is a poetic, strangely affecting, and essential look at the origins of modern authoritarianism and the psychology of fascism. Luca Marinelli plays to perfection the nascent dictator as he shifts allegiances and ideologies, shapeshifting with the twists and turns of the new century. Along the way, he narrates it all for the audience in an unstoppable torrent of self-regard, as if the viewer is a trusted friend, experiencing the spectacle alongside. It makes for some unsettling viewing. The parallels to today are unmistakable (at a key moment, Marinelli turns to the camera and apes Trump’s slogan — even more unsettling). It’s streaming on MUBI now and is absolutely worth seeking out.
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Why don‘t the Democrats have a consistent plan? Or a compelling narrative for the future of the country?
Sorry to say … not my style but I am angry … I loathe both men and consider them dangerous or just perhaps stupid when it comes to what we need and to the idea of how to say our democracy. I am amazed every time I hear an intelligent person on substack say “oh so good they at last have heard that the people want them to fight” how bloody naive - how in the Hell can we continue to be so out of touch - I never thought for a sec these 2 men would actually do what we know we need them to do… I am amazed actually shocked that educated folks continue to tell themselves the tide is turning or they are now “getting it” bullshit!!!!! They are the problem and the fact we don’t fight as a people on mass into DC in the millions… is shameful -
they will run…