Another government shutdown, another pointless waste of time

Given the noise from the left, it is now obvious that a pretty significant chunk of the Democrats didn’t really have a plan, or even the intention, to end the government shutdown. They simply wanted it to continue as long as it was damaging Republicans, irrespective of who else was hurt.

That makes this particular shutdown not terribly different from most other shutdowns, which have been typically instigated by one side that wants policy outcomes it hasn’t been able to secure through regular order, or what passes for regular order nowadays. This now-ritual pointless waste of time did not disappoint. It was, as all of its antecedents, a pointless waste of time, punctuated by an auto-da-fe imposed on some sacrificial lamb (this time, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer).