"In the case of the current government shutdown, however, there’s an inescapable detail: Democrats aren’t asking for anything. Consider the competing postures:

"Congressional Democrats: We just want to re-open the government. We don’t have any extraneous policy demands and we’re asking for no concessions.

"The Trump White House and congressional Republicans: We’ll consider re-opening the government if Democrats approve billions of dollars in spending for an unpopular border wall.

"To portray this with 'both sides share the blame' commentary isn’t just misleading, it’s also an enormous favor to the party that deserves responsibility.

"Indeed, to a very extent, it actually encourages the president to try to govern through hostage strategies because it signals to the White House that if Trump relies on extortion, the political mainstream will suggest Democrats give him something for his troubles. If not, they’ll be presented to the public as recalcitrant and unreasonable.

"The push for some kind of 'compromise' between the parties is misguided, in much the same way it’d be a mistake to call for a hostage-taker and law enforcement to strive for a middle ground."

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