General Discussion

But at this point it became obvious that Republicans were perfectly fine with the government being shut down forever. They were never going to relent on the ACA subsidies. I think they actually take pleasure in hurting the most people they can. So, sooner or later, the Democrats were going to have to agree to a CR. The Democratic party will not let people suffer unnecessarily forever. I think they should have waited longer, but I can see why some were ready to end it now - they didn't want the air traffic to be a mess come Thanksgiving and even if courts ruled in their favor, SNAP benefits using the contingency fund would have lasted less than 2 months.

The public now knows that if your health insurance premium skyrockets, it is 100% the fault of Republicans, and they don't give a damn about you.

The other mistake many here make is thinking that ALL Democrats think (or should think) as fanatically about this stuff as they do. That's just not the case. People not getting their SNAP, people whose flights were getting cancelled, Federal workers not receiving a pay check - they already all know this was due to Republicans. Keeping things shut down indefinitely was not going to change things. All it would do is make them continue to suffer while still not seeing any benefits in the long run.

This only hurts Democrats if Democrats (like many here) use it to attack the party moving forward, instead of keeping the focus on the one and only party responsible for this mess - the Republicans.