Is it time for another government shutdown showdown already? We went through the last one only five months ago, and then another just a few months before that. Each time this came back around, the best Congress could do was to vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government running at the same funding levels for a few more months. “Resolution” is a curious word in this context — because there never is one for what has become a dreaded, tiresome ritual.

This time around, the parameters of the debate are a little different than they were in March, when Democrats and Republicans finally agreed to extend the budget until Sept. 30. Once again, what Republicans are proposing is so odious that Democrats cannot be seen to have voted for it, lest their own voters turn on them. Even after the GOP barely managed to pass the Big Beautiful Catastrophe, which slashed taxes for the wealthy and safety net programs for everyone else, and added hundreds of billions to President Donald Trump’s federal police apparatus, they are coming back for more.

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Democrats have voters too — and they need to see their leaders in Washington making some “good trouble” for Republicans, even if it’s risky. Dangerous, unprecedented times call for bold action.

Instead of worrying obsessively about offending some swing voter a year from now, perhaps they should, as Ed Kilgore writes in New York magazine, “begin thinking of the federal government not as turf to be defended to the last ditch but as territory occupied by a proto-fascist regime and take some pride in interrupting its operations until normalcy returns.” Why make it easy for them?