Shutdown has been going on all year

Of all the federal government shutdowns that I’ve covered over three decades, the current one is the weirdest.

Most other times, by this point the battling sides — Democrats versus Republicans, White House versus Congress — have reached some split-the-baby resolution, pressured by an American public disgusted by shuttered federal offices, lapsed or shoestring services, threatened benefits and the general show of their representatives’ political dysfunction.

But this time, the 21st shutdown in the past half-century, all sides have dug in. No serious negotiations are underway. Heck, the Republican House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, sent lawmakers home a month ago, to await Democrats’ surrender. Yet Democrats, buoyed by polls showing more Americans blame Republicans for the stan