The GOP sought, through multiple government shutdowns, lasting spending reforms that would bring our nation's deficit problems to heel. Why in the world would Democrats think it's a good strategy with someone like Trump, for whom malfeasance is a defining characteristic? For years, our liberal friends laughed at us when we would advocate for making North Dakota less dependent on federal largess. If you polled the tea partiers at the time, they probably would have told you that the federal threat would come from a Democrat, not a Republican, but that doesn't matter. For decades, Democrats, in North Dakota and beyond, promoted a centralization of power in Washington D.C., and away from Bismarck, because that suited their agenda.