Politics have changed but the Democrats haven’t – they are old and out of touch | Moira Donegan

Leading Democrats vainly hope for a return to the politics of the past - they must engage with the realities of the present

Is this the way the Democratic party ends - not with a bang, but with a whimper? Last week, the party's Senate caucus seemed poised to do something that they had never done before: block the Trump administration's proposed continuing resolution, and shut down the government. It would have been a largely symbolic move, one that signaled opposition to the Trump administration's usurpation of Congress's spending authority and a willingness to play procedural hardball in order to slow Elon Musk's radical anti-government agenda. It would have signaled, too, a party willing to take itself seriously as the opposition to a president with authoritarian ambitions.

Government shutdowns are unpopular, but so, right now, is the Democratic party: several senators from swing states seemed ready to stick their necks out, ready to bet that it would be better to be seen doing something - anything - to oppose the Trump agenda than to roll over yet again. And for a few days, at least, it looked like Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, would back them up.