Subject: Re: Democratic senators fear getting ‘hammered’
As suggested before, I think the Dems chose the wrong hill to die on. Fox Noise has convinced the base that only "others" will be hurt, and the base is OK with "others" being thrown under the bus. Instead of invoking a filibuster, all the Dems should vote "present", and give the MAGAs their head. See how the MAGA base likes it.

This isn't about the MAGA base. It's about the Democrats' base.

The Democratic base wanted the Democrats to fight this fight. They want someone to stand up to Trump. They want their leaders to do something. It doesn't matter that the only effective "do something" when you've lost control of the government entirely is to win the next election. The base wanted the Democrats to do something now.

The only thing the minority party can do now is filibuster must-pass bills. So they're doing that.

Of course, if you're going to filibuster a must-pass bill, you need to have a reason to filibuster the must-pass bill. Which is tough, because must-pass bills are usually tailored to avoid things that will keep them from passing. And even when they're not, it's easy to change them to take the unpalatable bits out.

So the Democrats landed on "health care subsidies" as the "X" for which they were going to refuse to vote for the continuing resolution. Because of all the things that the GOP did as part of the BBB package, that's probably the most popular "X" to undo. But it leaves the Democrats in this weird place, where the thing they're fighting about isn't really top of mind for a lot of voters, and where the smart political play probably would have been to let the GOP stew in their own pot.