Following Up On Some Comments

I don’t think the way the shutdown ended is a very big story after all:

A USDA memo reads, "States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025." Governor Evers responded with a simple "no" to this order. Democrats have also shared their defiance at reclaiming SNAP benefits paid out this month, with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy warning she would "see him [Trump] in court" if the president forced residents to pay back their benefits.

Governor Healy said, "President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court." Those living in other states are still waiting on their SNAP payments, with funding for the program suspended on November 1 due to the government shutdown.

What the shutdown accomplished, or didn’t, is ultimately an abstraction. Trump demanding SNAP money be clawed back, and governors refusing to, is very concrete. 

Concrete wins.

And then the collapse of ACA subsidies, a program that reaches up much higher into the middle class. (We are not a classless society. Twice as many people are on SNAP as use the ACA, but “poor people” are invisible and muted. When the middle class gets hit, their shouts resonate. Dese are de conditions dat prevail.)

Concrete wins.

Ideas don’t matter. Things don’t matter. People matter. It’s true in politics, too.