The more I think about this the more I am convinced that McConnell is using this shutdown to prevent House Democrats from having a full two years of power they were elected to have.
McConnell is trying to run out the clock on Democratic House — Democratic Majority literally cannot get their home office up and running .They can’t propose anything they were won on . They are basically sidelined until the Government shutdown is over.
McConnell won the Merrick Garland gamble and is anticipating that any negative fallout from the shutdown will at worse be blamed on “both sides” at worse. This will bring down Democratic House approval ratings even before they start to govern. Setting up Republicans drive to retake the House in 2020.