Quote for the day -- stubborn, petty and stupid

"But at least the government will be open again.  There is never any excuse for the government to close.  Let's keep this simple:  shutdown politics is sandbox politics.  For much of the public -- those who live heavy lives and have more to think about than the tactical gullies rutted in the rules of Congressional procedure -- shutdown politics is about politicians being stubborn, petty and stupid to little effect except human suffering.  It is confirmation of the worst caricatures of right-wing populist democracy.  It only works for nihilists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and would-be authoritarians like Donald Trump. Democrats used to know this:  If they are to be taken seriously, they must be the party that believes in the hard pull of governance, which is why their old symbol, now foolishly abandoned -- the donkey, that working-class animal, the embodiment of stubborn effort -- was so apt (the Republicans who, in their current incarnation, give elephants a bad name, do not seem to believe in much of anything except vamping on illegal immigrants).  Sweat, compromise and earnest effort to make lives better is the essential card Democrats have to play.  Indeed, calling it a 'card' is feckless:  we are talking about the fundamentals of society, the maintenance of order through strength and carefully considered acts of empathy.  If something so fragile as a democracy is to survive, you don't mess with those things."

Joe Klein