Republicans had campaigned in 2014 on a specific pledge not to shut down the government. There are countless examples of Republican candidates making that specific pledge, as well as party leaders–even if a few Republicans in safe seats, or not up for re-election, did not. As much as the results of the 2014 midterms are a mandate to stop President Barack Obama’s agenda, they are also a constraint on the methods used to do so.
Republicans knew that. So did Democrats, which is why Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who had once excoriated Republicans for promoting “anarchy” by threatening a shutdown, adopted the same tactics this time. She knew that a shutdown was a remote possibility, and therefore that the cromnibus fight provided a cost-free way to boost her national profile as the most likely presidential challenger to the left of Hillary Clinton in 2016.
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