Let’s be partisan for a change.

(Okay, so maybe that’s not a change. Whatever.)

As this is written on Christmas Day minus three, we are in yet another government shutdown, the third in 2018. This time the shutdown involves about one-quarter of federal government departments and affects roughly 800,000 government workers who are either furloughed without pay or will be working without pay, although the latter will be paid retroactively. So, if the TSA gal ordering you to “empty the pockets, get out of the shoes, and lose the belt” seems a bit out of sorts, you might cut her some slack.

The immediate cause of the shutdown was a breakdown in negotiations between our president and bipartisan congressional leadership over a five-billion-dollar item to help fund the Trump Wall.

It was a typical Trumpian negotiation, highlighted with the Pelosi-Schumer “chat” on Christmas Day minus 14. To paraphrase, “Give me my five billion dollars or I will proudly shut down the government in the name of border security. … I will take the mantle of shutting down the government and I will not blame you.” (Emphasis mine.)

To most rational observers, this might look more like an ultimatum than negotiations, but then again, we are in Trump world.

Republican and Democrat leadership had put together a proposal for a continuing resolution that would fund the government until February. The resolution included $1.6 billion dollars for “border security,” which could include work on the president’s pet project. The idea was that a shutdown could be averted, and there would be time to work on a more permanent fix, again.

Our president indicated he would sign off on the resolution. With this assurance, congressional leadership breathed a collective sigh of relief and trotted back to their respective caucuses with their piece of paper celebrating “peace in our time.” The Senate even passed it.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to the signing.

On Christmas Day minus five, the president’s right-wing radio and TV talk show hosts turned on him. It was not pretty. The word “wimp” was used. The leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man on the planet, felt the need to place a personal call to one of the dissident radio personalities to assure him that the president had changed his mind and would not be signing off on the continuing resolution.

And in so doing, left the congressional delegation, Republicans and Democrats alike, with their shirt tails hanging out and their fannies in the air.

Oh, and on Christmas Day minus four, the president blamed the Democrats for the impending shutdown.

So much for building trust.

Now for the partisan bit …

Why, in the name of all that’s holy, would Democrats help the president fulfill even part of a campaign promise that he would then use to beat them about the head and shoulders in 2020?

It would be one thing if the campaign promise, if fulfilled, would be of benefit to ordinary Americans. This is not the case.

The “wall” is nothing more than a line tossed out in an early Trump rally that unexpectedly caught the imagination of the base, a base that Trump feels he must placate at all cost.

A wall didn’t work for the Chinese. It didn’t work for the Romans. It didn’t work for the East Germans. It won’t work for us. It’s old technology that is little more than a boondoggle waiting to happen. Be it concrete, pointy metal slats, or a white picket model harking back the halcyon days of the ’50s, a static wall is no match for increased border patrols, cameras, electronic detection equipment, and drones hovering overhead.

So, the sides are at loggerheads. Each side is determined not to appear to have caved in to the demands of the other.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t a deal to be made.

When will someone think to dust off and update the Dream Act, originally introduced in 2001 with no less a luminary than Orrin Hatch as a co-sponsor, or the related Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007?

Both pieces of legislation are near and dear to Democratic hearts and have had some GOP support in the past. As a bonus, the Reform Act provided for major increases in funding for border enforcement, and, yes, Democrats might be willing to bend on the wall, or whatever, if, in return, they get legislation that resolves the status of over 12 million mostly tax-paying undocumented immigrants.

It’s called negotiation, and it works better than what we have now.

By the time you read this, it may be Christmas Day plus some. On to 2019. Happy New Year!