Portside

For Democrats, the main issue in the shutdown wasn’t electoral backlash — it was the filibuster. Leadership feared its removal, viewing it as a safeguard to keep the party’s rising left wing in check.

Food banks grapple with a surge in demand. The prolonged lapse in government funding continues to stress food banks, charities and nonprofits set up to assist Americans in need, with federal workers going without pay also turning to those sources.

While Republicans threaten to bring the government to a halt, Democrats are caving in to the austerity measures they demand.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants is calling on "conference activists from across the Labor Movement" to conduct a "general strike to end the government shutdown."

A sickout by unpaid federal employees could bring the impasse—and their status as hostages to the president’s whim—to an end. Federal workers might learn from the successful example set by teachers from West Virginia to Arizona in 2018.

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