On Sunday night, as the government shutdown reached its 41st day, eight Senate Democrats provided the necessary votes to advance a package aimed at ending it. The deal will soon be presented to the House, where its passage is anticipated.
So after all that noise, what did Democrats really walk away with? Absolutely nothing. The deal they finally accepted was the same one they could’ve had weeks ago — a simple promise for a vote on Obamacare subsidies in December.
Senate Republicans had been clear from the start: they weren’t negotiating under the threat of a shutdown. And now, House Speaker Mike Johnson has already made it plain that his chamber isn’t even bound to honor that vote. In other words, Democrats dragged the country through weeks of chaos, only to end up right back where they started — minus the public goodwill.
Predictably, the failure theater is already underway. Senate Democrats are tripping over each other to declare that they “voted no” and will “keep fighting,” fully aware that the entire debacle was a scripted performance from the start.
There’s a reason Democrats scraped together just enough votes to push the deal through — it was pure political calculus. The party needed a handful of fall guys to take the hit and get this mess off the table before it cratered further. The rest can now puff up their chests and pretend they opposed it on principle, but let’s be honest — plenty of them were desperate for an off-ramp.
The shutdown was reaching a breaking point, with the national airspace and commercial travel on the verge of chaos. And no one outside the D.C. bubble was buying the line about Obamacare subsidies for early retirees anymore.
There’s no doubt that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave this deal his quiet blessing — even as he theatrically voted “no” and bragged about it afterward. If Schumer had really wanted to block it, he could have. He didn’t. And now the far-left wing of his party is losing its mind. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the most left-wing Democrats in the House, is already calling for Schumer’s head:
Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 10, 2025
It’s hard to overstate how significant this moment is. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hasn’t gone as far as directly calling for Schumer’s ouster — at least not yet — though you can bet she’ll fall in line soon. Khanna isn’t some fringe backbencher shouting from the sidelines; he’s a ranking member and co-chair of major House committees. For him to openly take a swing at the most powerful Democrat in Congress, branding him ineffective and demanding new leadership, marks a serious fracture inside the party.
And let’s be clear — no one in this debacle holds the moral high ground. Democrats spent weeks insisting Republicans were to blame for the shutdown, swearing they wanted it over. Now that it’s actually ending, they’re screaming betrayal. Their messaging is a tangled mess of contradictions, and it’s blowing up in their faces.
But Republicans aren’t complaining — why would they? The circular firing squad on the Left has already begun. The fight for the soul of the Democratic Party is officially on. The question is whether the radicals — Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna, and Mamdani — take control, or if Schumer and the old guard can hang on.
My money’s on the revolutionaries.
