The Dems need to move on quickly from Schumer with new leadership to standup to the disaster Trump/Musk is dumping on America. We need daily opposition to this current authoritarian/oligarch anti-democracy money greedy group led by the vengeful DJT.
Hate the title; love the thought and the reporting. Any further pretense that the demands for change are coming from the right or from some extreme progressives or any other fringes is ludicrous, despicable, and nothing more than further evidence that change is needed NOW.
> “[Schumer] doesn’t understand the moment and he doesn’t have the capacity to rise to the occasion and protect our country from fascism,” Aaron Regunberg, a former state representative from RHODE ISLAND and a leader of Pass the Torch, told The Bulwark. “I don’t know any normie Democrat who is not completely disgusted and enraged by what Schumer has done….”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of — yes — *Rhode Island*, has been making TV appearances before and after the vote (he was a no vote, not one of the ten that went with Schumer, mind you) arguing that Schumer had a hard call, that his position was and is defensible, and that the Democratic party can’t afford to go to civil war at this moment. So either Regunberg doesn’t consider his own junior senator a “normie Democrat” or he’s speaking entirely in hyperbole.
Congressional Democrats were caught without a Plan B. They were depending upon a continuation of eight years of Congressional Republican dysfunction to give them negotiating leverage about the CR. Democrats' Plan A, in turn, was contingent upon a critical mass of intransigent Freedom Caucus members continuing insanity to throw their negotiating leverage away by voting against Republicans. Could/should Schumer/Jeffries other Democrats have held emergency brain trust meetings to spin up a Plan B strategy to set back fires to increase the political pain points on every potentially vulnerable Republican House and Senator in their districts and states? Yes. Democrats need to stop the circular firing squad over the CR debacle. The Budget Resolution is unresolved. The National Debt Limit Ceiling must be raised. Start now to fracture the GOP unity. Trump/Musk are offering tons of targets.
"Eye on the prize." OK, what's the prize then? Stopping Trump-Musk's gutting of the government? Didn't happen. Stopping the blatant disregard for the law? Not happening. Protecting veterans, seniors, those reliant on government care? Pass.
Winning back the Senate? We have to wait years for that to happen. The long game is killing us.
I'm sorry, but Sen. Schumer is about to head off on a book tour through Baltimore, D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Atlanta?? How is that supposed to help anything, other than book sales? Shouldn't he be going to less-solidly D areas to try to win people over? If his people genuinely believe he's in a precarious spot, this book tour doesn't reflect that.
It will help because then he can FORCE you guys to finally THINK about what he's doing why, instead of allowing Trump to make you freak out so much that you skip the thinking part altogether...
I despise Schumer (for reasons that go way back) but we expect too much from Schumer. And we don't expect any more from Mike Johnson or any GOP legislator.
The difference is that the GOP has media that do it for them - so hide the bad and trumpet what seem good.
And maybe Schumer is right that there was no victory to be had.
Still the Dems need a sound byte or two.
Of course it is easier if all you need to do is lie.
Not a fan of Schumer's style for sure. But - right after Musk/Trump started their rampage through government departments, Schumer appeared at a protest before some DC building or another, waving his fists and shouting, "we will fight and we will win!" (or something similar), and he was almost universally mocked for doing that, saying it was ineffective. Now the story is that he "lacks vigor". So he can't win on appearances, whatever he does. That's either a deal-breaker or it's not - I can't decide because I don't know how good of a dealmaker he actually is behind the scenes.
Re: "...crisscrossing the country to hawk his latest book, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, as Trump continues to tear apart federal agencies."
This is nothing new. And it's one reason I'm a Never Trumper, but not a Democrat. This is a party focused on all the wrong stuff, all the time.
Trump has turned the Department of Defense over to a wife-beating drunk. The head of our national security agencies is a Russian asset. The head of our health service is a crackpot. The head of the FBI is a lunatic. Medicare is being run by a former talk show host who hawked miracle fat cures and believes Donald Trump would never ask him to violate the law. Oh, yeah, and we're fighting a trade war with our two biggest trading partners who also happen to be long-term allies.
This, it seems to me, is fertile ground for commentary.
But the leader of the opposition to Trump is talking about his book.
It's bigger than Shumer, too. The Democrats DO focus too much on identity politics, thinking they need to keep every element of their coalition happy. I'd argue that their coalition, at this point, are people who care about 1) the economy, 2) the rule of law and 3) the things America used to stand for, like being the beacon of freedom for the world, opportunity for everyone, and the one country in the world that will always stand up for people fighting oppression. We're none of that anymore because of who we elected. I'd like to see some Democrat ditch the identity crap and start talking about that.
Alternative hypothesis: letting Schumer take all these hits is fine. In fact it’s better than letting whomever will be the next group of leaders for the anti-MAGA movement stand up there when either action - fighting or appeasement - will result in failure in the near-term.
Beating up on Schumer buys the anti-MAGA coalition time to define who we are, what will inspire ourselves and the rest of our citizens to reject chaos, and attempts to delay things long enough for there to be a next time.
Should we have been doing this for five years? Absolutely! Should Biden and Schumer, et al, have realized sooner than it was never about policy? That no amount of good governance could solve the problem? I think so. But we haven’t articulated that message beyond saying, “don’t you see that this country is great?” And a slim plurality of voters in a handful of states said no, it’s not.
Democrats and the anti-MAGA coalition are entering the dark night of the soul. Schumer getting his Chamberlain close up is just a rare moment in which a career politician truly gets something that they deserve while we try to find a Churchillian type.
I don’t know if he is or isn’t the person for the hour. I think there was time and strategy that he left on the table in this fight, but the bill was always going to pass generally in the form that it was presented. I could be wrong.
I do tend to agree with the opinion that I’ve read elsewhere to “don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”. And I do believe Trump et al is in the process of tanking the economy - whether intentionally or not. At this point in time, with Dem approval ratings well below Trump’s approval ratings, the blame and resulting damage for shutting down the government was, in my opinion, going to partly if not mostly be put on the shoulders of Dems. Even if that blame was just from the side of Republican voters.
I think (hope) there is going to come a time further down the road when the finger can no longer be (falsely) pointed at Biden when Trump is going to own what he is doing to this country, economically, socially, legally. When that time comes and the people who voted for him who aren’t full on MAGA realize they made a tragic mistake the Dems want their powder dry and to have won over those types of voters. Whether that means to vote against Republicans or to fight against them in whatever type of battle is coming our way.
This isn’t to say Schumer necessarily should stay as minority leader. He probably isn’t the person for the moment given his age. I’m just not sure that his voting for cloture is the reason he should go. Clearer and calmer heads should prevail before the decision to change leaders in the middle of a war is made.
The Dems need to move on quickly from Schumer with new leadership to standup to the disaster Trump/Musk is dumping on America. We need daily opposition to this current authoritarian/oligarch anti-democracy money greedy group led by the vengeful DJT.
Hate the title; love the thought and the reporting. Any further pretense that the demands for change are coming from the right or from some extreme progressives or any other fringes is ludicrous, despicable, and nothing more than further evidence that change is needed NOW.
I’m fascinated by this (all-caps mine):
> “[Schumer] doesn’t understand the moment and he doesn’t have the capacity to rise to the occasion and protect our country from fascism,” Aaron Regunberg, a former state representative from RHODE ISLAND and a leader of Pass the Torch, told The Bulwark. “I don’t know any normie Democrat who is not completely disgusted and enraged by what Schumer has done….”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of — yes — *Rhode Island*, has been making TV appearances before and after the vote (he was a no vote, not one of the ten that went with Schumer, mind you) arguing that Schumer had a hard call, that his position was and is defensible, and that the Democratic party can’t afford to go to civil war at this moment. So either Regunberg doesn’t consider his own junior senator a “normie Democrat” or he’s speaking entirely in hyperbole.
Congressional Democrats were caught without a Plan B. They were depending upon a continuation of eight years of Congressional Republican dysfunction to give them negotiating leverage about the CR. Democrats' Plan A, in turn, was contingent upon a critical mass of intransigent Freedom Caucus members continuing insanity to throw their negotiating leverage away by voting against Republicans. Could/should Schumer/Jeffries other Democrats have held emergency brain trust meetings to spin up a Plan B strategy to set back fires to increase the political pain points on every potentially vulnerable Republican House and Senator in their districts and states? Yes. Democrats need to stop the circular firing squad over the CR debacle. The Budget Resolution is unresolved. The National Debt Limit Ceiling must be raised. Start now to fracture the GOP unity. Trump/Musk are offering tons of targets.
Book tour over before it had begun, Chuck? Security issues.
No buyers.
"Eye on the prize." OK, what's the prize then? Stopping Trump-Musk's gutting of the government? Didn't happen. Stopping the blatant disregard for the law? Not happening. Protecting veterans, seniors, those reliant on government care? Pass.
Winning back the Senate? We have to wait years for that to happen. The long game is killing us.
I am so ready for him to step down. I’ve been ready for a long time, but he has no strategy and no guts
I want Schumer and Fetterman to serve as pallbearers at my funeral so they can both let me down one last time.
I'm sorry, but Sen. Schumer is about to head off on a book tour through Baltimore, D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Atlanta?? How is that supposed to help anything, other than book sales? Shouldn't he be going to less-solidly D areas to try to win people over? If his people genuinely believe he's in a precarious spot, this book tour doesn't reflect that.
It will help because then he can FORCE you guys to finally THINK about what he's doing why, instead of allowing Trump to make you freak out so much that you skip the thinking part altogether...
I despise Schumer (for reasons that go way back) but we expect too much from Schumer. And we don't expect any more from Mike Johnson or any GOP legislator.
The difference is that the GOP has media that do it for them - so hide the bad and trumpet what seem good.
And maybe Schumer is right that there was no victory to be had.
Still the Dems need a sound byte or two.
Of course it is easier if all you need to do is lie.
Not a fan of Schumer's style for sure. But - right after Musk/Trump started their rampage through government departments, Schumer appeared at a protest before some DC building or another, waving his fists and shouting, "we will fight and we will win!" (or something similar), and he was almost universally mocked for doing that, saying it was ineffective. Now the story is that he "lacks vigor". So he can't win on appearances, whatever he does. That's either a deal-breaker or it's not - I can't decide because I don't know how good of a dealmaker he actually is behind the scenes.
Re: "...crisscrossing the country to hawk his latest book, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, as Trump continues to tear apart federal agencies."
This is nothing new. And it's one reason I'm a Never Trumper, but not a Democrat. This is a party focused on all the wrong stuff, all the time.
Trump has turned the Department of Defense over to a wife-beating drunk. The head of our national security agencies is a Russian asset. The head of our health service is a crackpot. The head of the FBI is a lunatic. Medicare is being run by a former talk show host who hawked miracle fat cures and believes Donald Trump would never ask him to violate the law. Oh, yeah, and we're fighting a trade war with our two biggest trading partners who also happen to be long-term allies.
This, it seems to me, is fertile ground for commentary.
But the leader of the opposition to Trump is talking about his book.
It's bigger than Shumer, too. The Democrats DO focus too much on identity politics, thinking they need to keep every element of their coalition happy. I'd argue that their coalition, at this point, are people who care about 1) the economy, 2) the rule of law and 3) the things America used to stand for, like being the beacon of freedom for the world, opportunity for everyone, and the one country in the world that will always stand up for people fighting oppression. We're none of that anymore because of who we elected. I'd like to see some Democrat ditch the identity crap and start talking about that.
GOP does identity politics very well. In fact, they have done it for decades.
Dems ran a campaign on a good economy, rule of law and trump the authoritarian. It's just lazy to claim that Dems are all about 'identity politics'.
Trump's most effective ad was: "She cares about they/them. He cares about you."
That worked because people perceive it to be true.
Alternative hypothesis: letting Schumer take all these hits is fine. In fact it’s better than letting whomever will be the next group of leaders for the anti-MAGA movement stand up there when either action - fighting or appeasement - will result in failure in the near-term.
Beating up on Schumer buys the anti-MAGA coalition time to define who we are, what will inspire ourselves and the rest of our citizens to reject chaos, and attempts to delay things long enough for there to be a next time.
Should we have been doing this for five years? Absolutely! Should Biden and Schumer, et al, have realized sooner than it was never about policy? That no amount of good governance could solve the problem? I think so. But we haven’t articulated that message beyond saying, “don’t you see that this country is great?” And a slim plurality of voters in a handful of states said no, it’s not.
Democrats and the anti-MAGA coalition are entering the dark night of the soul. Schumer getting his Chamberlain close up is just a rare moment in which a career politician truly gets something that they deserve while we try to find a Churchillian type.
This is exactly right. I wrote about Chuck’s failure to lead this morning. https://gunksny.substack.com/p/the-schumer-fallacy
I don’t know if he is or isn’t the person for the hour. I think there was time and strategy that he left on the table in this fight, but the bill was always going to pass generally in the form that it was presented. I could be wrong.
I do tend to agree with the opinion that I’ve read elsewhere to “don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”. And I do believe Trump et al is in the process of tanking the economy - whether intentionally or not. At this point in time, with Dem approval ratings well below Trump’s approval ratings, the blame and resulting damage for shutting down the government was, in my opinion, going to partly if not mostly be put on the shoulders of Dems. Even if that blame was just from the side of Republican voters.
I think (hope) there is going to come a time further down the road when the finger can no longer be (falsely) pointed at Biden when Trump is going to own what he is doing to this country, economically, socially, legally. When that time comes and the people who voted for him who aren’t full on MAGA realize they made a tragic mistake the Dems want their powder dry and to have won over those types of voters. Whether that means to vote against Republicans or to fight against them in whatever type of battle is coming our way.
This isn’t to say Schumer necessarily should stay as minority leader. He probably isn’t the person for the moment given his age. I’m just not sure that his voting for cloture is the reason he should go. Clearer and calmer heads should prevail before the decision to change leaders in the middle of a war is made.
I agree. I'm pissed at the TEN. Bit I am also asking: what about recess appts that trump could have made during a shutdown?