As this is written, the calendar has turned from 2018 to 2019, the partial government shutdown continues with no apparent end in sight, and the Democrats show no interest in any solution to the problem that includes any of the money the President needs for proper border security.  Come January 3rd, the Democrats will take over the House of Representatives.  They claim to have a simple solution.  Just pass a bill that funds Homeland Security until February 3, 2019, and give the President absolutely “nothing.”  The Dems apparently haven’t heard, or else don’t care that the President has made it quite clear that he will not accept “nothing,” and that the Senate has repeatedly told the Dems that they will not present a bill to the President that they know he will not sign.  The Democrat position checks all the Left-wing boxes.  By telling Trump to “drop dead,” the Dems energize their nutty base and their even nuttier contributors.  They also fulfill their greatest desire, to embarrass and attempt to destroy the President.  Also, putting off the border wall fight for another month will give the Dems and their lapdog media partners another month to hype new caravans, and to hope for the opportunity to exploit the deaths of a few more illegal alien children.  In fairness, you must understand that the Dems never thought Trump would make it this far.  In Democrat Crazyland, Trump would have been long gone by now.  The FBI and CIA would have ruined Trump and driven him from office.  That didn’t work.  The Congressional investigations would have proven that Trump is deriving the bulk of his income from Russian oligarchs, or from emoluments supplied by nameless, faceless foreign diplomats who are putting money in the President’s packet by buying pay-per-view movies in Trump’s Washington Hotel.  That hasn’t worked either.  Then again, by now the Dems expected head witch hunter Robert Mueller to have found the photographs of Trump kissing Vladimir Putin’s ring, or the deed to the $50 million penthouse that they say Trump promised Putin, or some such nonsense.  Even the Democrats must know by now that that’s never happening.  If the Democrats were smart, they would realize that their best course would be to make a deal with Trump to end the shutdown, such as it is, and to begin to set themselves up for 2020 by actually governing the country, and sending the message that they have a better plan than the Republicans, rather than by spending all their time trying to scorch the Earth around the President.  For the time being, Donald Trump is the President, and his wishes need to be respected and fulfilled, at least up to a point.  Trump is anxious to end the shutdown, and he undoubtedly will settle, if the Dems can see their way clear to letting Trump have something he wants for border security.  If they were smart, they would string Trump along for the remaining two years, demonstrate that they are responsible legislators who can be trusted to govern sensibly, and win back the White House in 2020.  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the Democrats are not smart, nor are they in a position to work with this President.  Their nutty base just won’t stand for it, and their whacky Bolshevik billionaire contributors won’t have it either.  And so, the fighting will continue.  And so, the Dems will hand Donald Trump more ammunition to use in 2020.  And maybe, just maybe, the Democrats will manage to destroy their own last best hope of winning back the presidency two years from now.