The meme is that if the Republicans don’t do what the Democrats want, they are to blame for the shutdown. Why is that?  Why isn’t it that if the Democrats don’t do what the Republicans want, they are to blame for the shutdown?  I guess that just doesn’t play as well in the press.

When the entire basis of your electoral success is promoting living at the expense of someone else and your voters expect you to vote them money from someone else’s income, responsibility is pretty much out the window.