There is a well-founded bit of conventional wisdom that government shutdowns never really work for the side making demands to keep things open. There are many such cases . “I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to remind Democrat colleagues that taking basic government functions hostage for partisan demands never pays,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday on X . And McConnell has actually been pretty consistent on this point, even dating back to when his side was