The Empty Political Theater Of Chuck Schumer
Never one to let an opportunity to be completely feckless pass by, Senator Schumer went before cameras today and pretended that Democrats were united in opposing the Republican continuing resolution to keep the government running—but it was a lie he’s hoping Democratic voters will be too angry at Republicans to spot.
Don’t let him get away with it.
Here’s the script I used this evening when leaving messages at the local offices of Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden.
I’m calling to strongly urge the Senator not just to vote no on cloture for the Republican CR, but to push back hard against the plan to trade a Democratic vote for cloture in exchange for a purely performative vote on a Democratic alternative. We are exhausted and angry and frustrated not just at Republicans but also at Democrats. Republicans needing cloture is a parliamentary weapon placed in your hands, and trading it away while pretending for the cameras like Senator Schumer that the caucus is united against the CR is empty theater and we know it. We aren’t going to care if you got a vote on a Democratic bill. We’re going to care if you voted to let them advance the Republican one.
Government shutdowns hurt, but if Democrats don’t understand how or aren’t interested in hanging this particular shutdown entirely on the Republican Party whose fascist administration is gutting the regulatory state from top to bottom, then they don’t deserve to be in the United States Senate.
This is the one real flex they have, and if they aren’t going to use it then we should #PrimaryThemAll.
Addenda
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So, unless there’s some sort of uprising from members, it’s over, and Schumer will “lead” Democrats into granting permission for Republicans to codify Mine Furor and Phony “Swasticar” Stark’s gutting of the country’s administrative state, something that will be effectively impossible to undo even if Democrats somehow regain power.
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Here’s the email I sent to staffers in Schumer’s office this evening.
I’m writing as a lifelong Democrat to strongly urge the Senator to reconsider, and to vote “no” on cloture and “no” on the Republican continuing resolution which would codify the damage being done by President Trump and the unelected techbros of DOGE.
We are exhausted and angry and frustrated not just at Republicans but also at Democrats. Republicans needing cloture is a parliamentary weapon placed in your hands, and setting that weapon down isn’t going to have the effect the Senator thinks it will.
We’re going to care if you voted to let Republicans advance their bill, and we’re going to remember it every time the Senator, or the DSCC, or any other “yes” vote sends a fundraising solicitation, and we’re going to remember it at the midterms, and we’re going to remember it when the Senator’s seat is up again.
There’s no world in which it makes sense for Democrats to accede to codifying the DOGE takeover, when parliamentary procedure for once gives them a weapon to fight back.
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The problem is that by the time Democrats have any chance at power again the federal government will be unrecognizable, a smoldering heap of faits accompli. In his justification speech this afternoon Schumer said that “for Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift.” To this we have to assume that doing precisely what Trump demands amounts to some kind of ingenious counterstrike. I doubt that’s true.
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Me, back in November:
What the Democrats need to understand is that there’s no countervailing “gaming it out” they can do in response to this fascist gamesmanship, because nothing Democrats can do will result either in them scoring a point in the Republican game or prevent the Republicans from scoring a point in the Republican game.
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The single and only thing Democrats can do […] is to know their values, stick to their values, and stick up for their values.