Democrats are winning the shutdown politics. Can they stop now?

After the 2013 government shutdown ended, Republican leaders made clear they had only been humoring Sen. Ted Cruz and his plot to defund Obamacare.

“It was not a smart play. It had no chance of success,” then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.

Then-House Speaker John Boehner initially said the GOP had “fought the good fight.” But he would later say the plan “never had a chance” and even called the Texas senator “Lucifer in the flesh.”

This is how shutdowns generally go. The side seeking a concession fights what they view as “the good fight,” and then they give up when it becomes clear that it’s also a losing fight. Because, as McConnell has often said, shutdowns don’t work.

And maybe that’s how Democrats thought this one would go down. House Speaker Mike Johnson basically predicted as much Saturday, wagering Democrats might back down after Tuesday’s elections.