Democrats say they had no choice. After eight months of getting flattened by Trump on policy and programs at home and abroad with no sound counter message, they couldn’t just roll over again. (Well, maybe they could have. But they didn’t!) I wasn’t sure they picked the right fight. I thought shutting down the government would hand the president another opportunity to fire thousands more federal workers and dismantle agencies he doesn’t like. But I’ve come around.

All it took was a chance encounter at a Starbucks with a Democratic senator who heard me out when I voiced my concern. “It had to be about something,” he said emphatically, “We made it about something, which is health care, our strongest suit.”

The current impasse is on the surface over Democrats’ demands to extend Obamacare subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans. And with notices from insurance companies confirming premium jumps of 75 percent or more for families, young people and small businesses—such that will make health plans unaffordable—the Democrats have an issue that is relatable for millions of people.

But this is about more than passing a budget or finding a way to make health care affordable. It’s about Dems making a big play for working class Americans with a government shutdown the best and perhaps only chance before the 2026 midterms to crystallize the argument that only one party really cares about your lives and livelihoods (if you’re not rich) in a way that reaches enough voters to make a difference. And it’s not Trump’s party.

“I think the Democrats anticipated Trump would over play his hand on rhetoric and policy,” Jack Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, told The Daily Beast of the shutdown........

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