Today’s newsletter highlights:

The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. after rival Senate votes to break the gridlock failed. Now both sides are preparing for an extended confrontation and a standoff that won’t soon end.

Democrats and Republicans have moved further to their ideological flanks with less appetite for consensus. The red-state seats held by Democrats in 2018 during the last shutdown are now largely held by Republicans. The more liberal incumbents who remain feel there’s little incentive to bend.

Republicans, meanwhile, have shifted further to the right during President Donald Trump’s rise to power. They, too, have little willingness to cut a deal under a president who views compromise as a weakness.

The fight is already reverberating in Georgia’s 2026 midterms.

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