Crossing your fingers for two years is not a real strategy for addressing the change before us.

But neither is voting down the CR. Which also wouldn't have done any of the things you argue are necessary to be done. In fact, it would have made it worse - because shutdowns are unpopular, and the President has more actual authority to start whacking the government if Congress has failed to fund it than he does in ordinary circumstances.

No one is claiming that the Democrats have landed on a successful strategy for pushing back on Trump. That doesn't mean that it would have been smart to vote down the CR.

The sclerotic leadership of the Democratic Party has "answers" for Trumpism - win back power. That's not satisfying for the Democratic base, that wants to be told that there's a way for them to push back on Trump now. They want to engage in wish-fulfillment fantasies, that losing both chambers of Congress and the Presidency can't result in a massive change in the country, that there has to be a way to stop him if Democrats only fought more.

But it's not true. Pushing back on the GOP will be a long, slow, arduous slog that is unlikely to result in any cathartic moments of visible resistance any time in the next year - and if you don't want to be in the exact same position after the 2026 election, you need to forego the quick sugar hit of meaningless and ultimately self-defeating "protest" actions and avoid doing things that will be unpopular. Like forcing the country into a government shutdown.