Jeff Bezos (net worth $233.7 billion) and his cronies on the editorial board of the Washington Post have decided to conjure up a trap for Democrats who are trying to save lives threatened by the Orange TACOs budget slashers.

[T]he Democratic Party shut off any potential escape valve to avoid a shutdown, which began at midnight on Tuesday. In doing so, progressives embraced the same disastrous mentality that led the House Freedom Caucus to believe it could come out ahead in previous government funding standoffs: They wrongly assumed their political leverage would withstand the ensuing fallout.

Left-wing Democrats, like the Freedom Caucus before them, enter this shutdown in a position of weakness. President Donald Trump and his budget director, Russell Vought, now have extraordinary authority to choose which agencies to close, what spending to prioritize and even which government workers to lay off. As Trump warned on Tuesday, “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible.”

Expect him to follow through in a way that maximizes pain for Democrats, who will probably face pressure from their allies in government labor unions after employees are fired and others are forced to work without pay. While congressional Democrats have so far put up a mostly unified front, coalescing around a demand to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year, there’s no guarantee the party’s resolve will last.

So, here the Post editorial writers admit Trump and his minions will do everything in their power to hurt Americans. But Democrats will be to blame for the authoritarian regime’s cruelty?

How does that make any sense?

There was a time (when I was a Post editor), I would have given the Amazon mogul some slack, because he didn’t get involved in editorial decisions when I was there. But then he said this in February:

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote in a memo to staffers announcing the changes. “We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

Why is this troublesome? Because it isn’t an original idea for one. Look at this:

Surveying a century and a quarter of journalism is a bracing exercise—at intervals depressing and inspiring. Depressing because bad ideas never die. But inspiring because a free society can rescue itself from periods of decline and despond not unlike the current moment. This is one lesson of 125 years of Journal editorials that promote free people and free markets.

That was the mantra of my earlier employer, The Wall Street Journal. The slogan was common knowledge when I started at the WSJ in 1987, although I’m quoting this from 2014. Bezos bought the Post in 2013 and came up with the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan (which he stole from Bob Woodward who was quoting a federal judge). But I would imagine Bezos thought the new Post slogan was cool because he was stealing it (as well as a good chunk of WSJ staff) from Rupert Murdoch.

So, Bezos takes credit for the work of other people, much like he became a billionaire through the work of other people.

Do Republicans get any blame for the shutdown?

Republican leaders knew they would need Democratic buy-in to keep the government running, yet they projected little interest in serious talks. At least eight Senate Democrats must join the Republicans to pass a funding bill, because Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has said he will vote against it. Trump’s provocative social media jabs also have not been helpful, including an offensive AI-generated video posted on Monday that purported to show Schumer denigrating his own party with profane language.

Nevertheless, the public has proved to be unsupportive of lawmakers who create unnecessary crises to extract political concessions.

WAIT A MINUTE? CREATING UNNECESSARY CRISES IS THE ENTIRE GOP PLAYBOOK. HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD OF DONALD J. TRUMP (note the use of capital letters, an emblematic Republican ploy). Also note that the only Republican standing against the GOP funding bill is our own Rand Paul.