When things are going wrong, assigning blame is often unproductive. But not always. Veracity and candor forbid us to ignore the question of who is responsible for the government shutting down.

It matters because Republicans, being inept at communications, usually allow Democrats to frame it as entirely the GOP’s fault. It needs to be said that there are two culprits on this occasion. Most of the blame must go to Senate Democrats because of their excessive and unrelated demands. Some blame also attaches to President Trump, for his poor grasp of both principle and detail, which leads him to flip-flop on policy.