Whose side are you on?! Why are you so against Americans having healthcare?

The conventional wisdom is always right until it’s not. In Washington, the conventional wisdom on government shutdowns was that they backfire on the party that’s out of power. Heading into the current shutdown, Capitol Hill insiders and other so-called experts warned Democrats that they would be fools to pick a budget fight now. As the shutdown enters its second week, it’s clear that the pundits got this one wrong. Democrats are winning the shutdown fight in the court of public opinion because they aren’t holding out for some abstract principle or unreasonable demand. Instead, they are fighting to keep millions of people from seeing their health insurance premiums skyrocket as Affordable Care Act subsidies expire. Republicans could have avoided this fight if they had extended the subsidies earlier this year. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more foolish they look for opposing something so popular and necessary. Republicans know that, which is why they have tried to muddy the waters with falsehoods, pushing the false claim that Democrats want health care for undocumented immigrants. That kind of sleazy sloganeering might work in a legislative fight that Americans aren’t watching closely, but it wilts under the bright lights of a shutdown. Republicans are left looking unserious. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., hardly a moderate voice in her party, is now signaling openness to a deal to preserve those ACA subsidies, while independent Sen. Angus King of Maine has indicated he may not keep voting with Republicans on a bill to reopen the government if they don’t get serious about health care costs. Normally at this point in a shutdown, the defections would be toward reopening the government. The fact that they are happening on the other side shows how effective the pressure of a disciplined Democratic strategy has been. Which side are you on?!