Narrative Dominance—How Democrats Can Win the Shutdown Fight

No more waiting for talking points.

It’s looking incredibly likely that the federal government is going to shut down tonight—and it’s happening because Donald Trump is too arrogant and too goddamn stupid to work with Democrats to stop it.

Yesterday on my show, I had Sarah Longwell on—someone I respect a lot—and she dropped a term I hadn’t heard before to describe how Republicans plan to win this fight: narrative dominance.

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Right now, flip on any conservative outlet, MAGA influencer, or Trump himself, and you’ll hear the same lie on repeat: that Democrats are shutting down the government to hand money to undocumented immigrants. That’s flatly, objectively false. Democrats are holding the line to undo brutal Republican budget cuts, to reverse the damage of Trump’s tariffs, and to protect health care for millions.

And they’re right to draw that line. The truth is, the party in power always gets blamed for shutdowns—just like Trump did the last two times this happened. But none of that matters to him. He refuses to make concessions, refuses to look weak, and frankly, he’s too incompetent to even understand what governing requires—let alone how his actions are screwing over the American people.

Here’s the real danger: Democrats could lose this fight if they don’t seize the narrative. We need to make damn sure the public understands this isn’t about opposing a clean continuing resolution just to be difficult. We’re doing it to stop your health insurance premiums from going through the roof. We’re doing it to end Trump’s tariffs and lower prices. We’re doing it to reverse vicious GOP cuts—like slashing school lunches for 12 million kids and gutting community policing programs.

But that message isn’t going to cut through with a couple of press conferences. We need the right messengers—and a lot more than just party leadership. Democrats love to wait for the official talking points before jumping in. Meanwhile, Republicans are already on the attack. They’ve got their narratives and they act on them. They’re not sitting on endless Zoom calls debating the language of a tweet.

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If Democrats want narrative dominance—if we want to win this fight, take back the House, and crush the midterms—we’ve got to move fast and hit hard. And people need the freedom to screw up while doing it. That’s where we’re stumbling right now.

We might win this shutdown fight the same way we won the budget fight—by hammering the same message, nonstop. The Republican budget was wildly destructive and hurtful, and Democrats largely stayed glued to that point, which is why the budget is so unpopular (it’s also just self-evidently bad and hard for the Republicans to spin).

But as Sarah said on the show, this isn’t something one CNN hit or press release will fix. It’ll take thousands of messengers—politicians, influencers, activists—across every platform: TV, YouTube, podcasts, social. And they’ve got to push the message with urgency and clarity.

Republicans never stop communicating with their base—or the country. Their message is always the same: Democrats are bad. Democrats are hurting you. Democrats are the problem. That line works when you’re out of power. But it starts to crumble when you’re the one running the show. That’s part of why Trump’s approval rating is stuck in the low 40s.

Democrats need their own version. Step one: Republicans are bad, and what they’re doing is hurting you. Step two: Here’s what we’re fighting for, and here’s how it helps you. Because right now, even among Democratic voters, you still hear: “Yeah, Democrats want to help... but not me.” That’s a huge problem, and we don’t win until we can get quality, effective answers to that.

The Democratic Party has to be seen as fighting for real people—especially people getting hammered by this economy. That’s what this shutdown is about. It’s about stopping cruel budget cuts. It’s about saving ACA tax credits so people don’t get crushed by 75% premium hikes. It’s about killing tariffs that are jacking up prices on everything from groceries to appliances.

We need to go hard on this. Every hour, every day. Push through the noise. Don’t get sidetracked dunking on every dumbass MAGA outburst—like Hegseth’s unhinged speech to the generals earlier today. Stay focused (yes, that goes for me too!). This is a fight that actually affects people’s lives.

If Democrats win this—if we stop the cuts, block the premium spikes, and reclaim tariff power—we’ll have done something real for millions of Americans. And we need to shout that from the rooftops. Remind people what we fought for, while Republicans were busy fear-mongering about immigrants. It’s ridiculous. It’s a lie. But they repeat it so often, people start to believe it—or just tune out entirely.

We don’t have time for distractions. Republicans are terrified we’ll win the midterms. That’s why they’re gerrymandering the hell out of their states. Their swagger? It’s fear in disguise. Trump’s out here claiming he has a 60% approval rating and that inflation doesn’t exist. It’s complete bullshit.

We can win this—but only if we build narrative dominance. That means getting tougher, getting louder, and putting everyone in the fight. Not just Hakeem Jeffries. Not just Chuck Schumer. Every single Democrat in Congress should be on TV, TikTok, Instagram, local radio—everywhere—pushing the same message. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t have the job.