The Left Wants Chuck Schumer to Resign. That's Easier Then Admitting He Outmanuevered Them

 

Right now progressives are angry and indignant at Chuck Schumer.

This attitude itself is nothing new: it's pretty much their natural state. I'd argue it's one of many reasons they've been so pissed as Donald Trump for the last decade: it's not just that he's managed to do something they can never do – turn into political power – but he's stiffing them on residuals.

As to Chuck Schumer being their target that's nothing new for Schumer as they've been pissed at him as symbolic of everything they hate: a career politician who has responsibility to the Democratic Party, the country and the people who voted for him. As we all know the left believes the only responsibility everyone has  – not just Democratic representatives but everyone in the country, if not the world – is to them the left who know what the right thing is for all Americans and that everyone bears a moral responsibility to do it, regardless of such minor details as money, opposition or even the votes to get it done.

And it's worth noting that their most recent anger at Schumer is because he did the kind of thing that for years or decades they have mocked and berated Republicans for doing: choosing to end a meaningless shutdown having gotten nothing for it in return. They've gone out of their way to frame it differently in their missives from MoveOn and other left-wing organizations to be sure: they have gone to great detail to say that Republicans and Trump caused this shutdown because they refused to negotiate on health care. That in their most recent email MoveOn then chose to argue that the Republicans were in power and that Democrats caused the shutdown is the kind of double standard that they always mock – whenever Republicans do it.

Chuck Schumer is like J.K. Simmons in the Farmer's Ad: he knows a thing or two because he's seen a thing or two. And one of those things was the longest government shutdown in 2013 when Republicans led by the Freedom Caucus and John Boehner, effectively held the government hostage for more than a month over Obamacare. The Republicans had no more leverage in 2013 then the Democrats had going into 2025: they only controlled the House and the Democrats had both the Senate and the White House. I have no doubt they framed their fundraising emails to their constituents the exact same way that Hakeem Jeffries and certain progressive Democrats framed this one: that the opposition party was responsible for the shutdown and that it was important all Republicans stand with them. That said because the conservatives are better at this then the left is, I have no doubt they had the sense to frame it as a win when they came back to the bargaining table having gotten nothing. They certainly maintained party unity going forward – something the left never does – and have done over since. By contrast when Schumer came back the left has chosen to argue this was a betrayal, something everyone from Gavin Newsom to Jon Stewart is piling on to him for.

Never mind the Democrats had less leverage then the Republicans did when they staged their shutdown twelve years ago. Never mind that in that case the President was a rational man something the left will gladly tell you in every other email Trump is not. Never mind that by doing so the Democrats were starting to hurt so many people that the left claims to care about including the poor and those on food stamps. The President had made it clear he was not going to negotiate with Democrats at any time. Schumer knew this. The left knew all this. So the most surprising thing is that they managed to delude themselves into thinking this was a battle they could somehow win.

To be perfectly clear I thought from the start that every part of the shutdown was a terrible, misplaced idea that was being driven by desperation by the Democrats in the aftermath of last November's election. Like so many of the actions they have taken in the last several months I think it is a case of the tail wagging the dog and a desperate attempt to get progressives to vote Democrat, something they have steadfastly and ridiculously refused to do even as they admit the Republican party is pretty close to  a fascist party. Winning over the left is an impossible fight and I think the Democrats should admit.

With that said, on a political level I respect what Chuck Schumer has managed to do and its why I'm not inclined to think he's one of the losers of the shutdown. I have no doubt he will take the heat and anger for it but that's because the left won't admit the truth: that they were completely outmaneuvered by a Democrat rather than the other way around. To explain let's go back to March when the possibility for a shutdown was imminent.

The most recent stopgap measure, funding the government until the end of September, was done entirely by Speaker  Johnson without any input from Democrat leadership at all. It features cuts that are in keeping with so much of what modern conservatism has wanted to do the government since the age of Reagan but has never been able to execute until now. And because of the way the House works and with the GOP holding a narrow majority, the Democrats had no choice but to less it pass almost entirely on party lines. The sole Democrat to vote for it was Jared Golden.

This was depressing but to be expected. What happened in the Senate was not, certainly not from the Democratic Party during this century. Because of the rules of the Senate, getting this resolution passed would require a cloture vote, requiring 60 Senators. The Republicans have merely 53, requiring seven Democrats to vote in favor of invoking cloture. The filibuster, as Democrats and progressives have reminded us for the last decade at least, has been the tool of Senate Republicans from obstructing any meaningful legislation since 2010. The Democrats have never used it for any meaningful purpose at any time during W’s administration or indeed Trump’s first term. This has subjected them to increasing criticism from the left during the latter but it is keeping with the message of Democrats being the party of stability and institutions.

This is not the case now. Even before the budget reached the Senate floor there has been huge clamor from Congressional Democrats, including some in the Senate, insisting that when the bill come to the floor the Democrats should filibuster it. There was a clear understanding that, if this were to happen, a government shutdown would ensue. Many Democrats including Jeffries seemed fine with that as an outcome, something that Democrats like John Fetterman objected do strongly.

Schumer was more than aware of this fact and at some level you’d think most of the Democratic Senators were as well. They also have to know that chaos has always been Trump’s greatest ally and that dissension in the Democratic ranks, particularly now, can only help him. And yet during this Friday when Schumer made it clear that he was going to vote for the deal, large members of the Democratic caucus as well as countless progressives turned their ire on him.

There is now discussion among members of Congress of having a Democrat primary Schumer in 2028, with some wanting AOC to do it. When this question was posed to an angry Jeffries he said: “Next question.”

Schumer knew he was under fire from his left. Six months later nothing had changed when the next stopgap measure came through. What was different was that an election was coming up in a month's time and Schumer knew that no matter how the GOP or Trump tried to frame it, it would be viewed in the media as a referendum on his second term.

So what I suspect is that he and Jeffries engaged in a kind of negotiation of their own. The next time the stop gap happened they'd both allow their caucus to vote against and this time he allow his Democrats to filibuster it.  Then they would close ranks for the next several weeks until the votes were counted in November. If the voters chose to vote Republican in both Virginia and New Jersey, then they could argue that the left's approach hadn't worked and they would go back to being like grownups. By contrast if the Democrats won and won big perhaps House Republicans would come to them and they could reopen the government on the terms that they had set. There was no real downside – except for the damage that Trump would no doubt to the government in that month but at this point they were well aware that was going to happen no matter what.

It's worth noting that Republicans and members of the administration were counting on the fact that the Democrats would cave almost immediately. An article in Politico written this week said that their was a pool when the government shutdown as to when Schumer and Jeffries would give in and the most anyone was willing to bet on was a week. Considering the reputation of the Democrats for being wishy-washy and flip-floppers I would have made the same bet and the fact that the rank-and-file basically completely held together completely frustrated everyone in the House and Senate.

It didn't help matters that the President basically spent October ignoring what was going on in the shutdown. I have no doubt he thought this chaos would work to his advantage – a safe bet considering his rise to power and beyond – and its just as likely he didn't give a damn. For the President what is best for the nation is what is best for Donald Trump and he expected the GOP to follow him blindly as always. That certain members of his caucus – including Marjorie Taylor Greene, of all people – were starting to chart their own paths was a problem as always he chose to ignore.

The President did everything he could to pretend last week's elections were not a reflection on him but they very much were. Considering just how staggering the margins of victory were for Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as in Prop 50 and so many other states on local issues, is the biggest sign so far of Trump's lame duck status. As always he chose to deny it, blamed the victories on the shutdown (giving the Democrats oxygen) and instead of arguing the House should negotiate told Senate Majority Leader to end the filibuster. Thune made it clear of his increasing independence (in the worst way) by saying it was a non-starter with Republicans.

By this point there was nothing left for the Democrats to win.  With the suspension of payment of food stamps it was becoming clear that soon people were going to suffer and very soon. The point was made clear this weekend when Justice Ketanji Jackson issued a stay on the appellate court's order restoring payments. (By the way I expect Daily Kos and Move On to stop using Jackson in their texts and emails for the foreseeable future after that.)

Now I need to say something that will be difficult to hear for some readers but it is the truth: when it comes to the suffering of so many people the far left is just as indifferent to it as the far right is save for how it can use it as a cudgel. They've been very clear about this for years in how they make it clear just how superior states that are under Democratic leadership are thriving compared to those have lived under Republican rule. The people in rural red states no doubt need the kind of leadership that Democrats and progressives could provide by their own logic but as far as they're concerned they got what was coming to them when they chose to vote Republican for decades. And as far as their concerned they are 'mooching' of blue states for all the federal programs and care they need for red states. When you throw in just how much they seemed to be taking a kind of schadenfreude about how many Covid conspirators died during the pandemic (Daily Kos had a record of this during 2020) and I guarantee you that when people started to starve to death as a result of not being able to receive SNAP programs MoveOn would start putting billboards in front of the White House in order to end the 'Republican shutdown'.

So I have no doubt Schumer did exactly what he planned to do from the start. He had seven Democrats and one independent vote on Sunday to reopen the government. All of them were either stepping down next year (Dick Durbin and Jeanne Shaheen) or were not going to be up for reelection in at least another three years' time: an eternity in politics and even more so in the age of hourly outrage on social media. And I'm pretty clear that some of them had never been in favor of keeping the government closed in the first place. (John Fetterman had voted to keep the government open the first time in March and voted with Republicans this time)

That so many seemingly intelligent people have argued that Schumer 'caved' essentially means that they chose to believe what this shutdown really was about premiums of Obamacare and not giving in to the petulant demands of the progressives. There was no scenario in which Trump was going to give into the demands of Senate Democrats because Trump is exactly like progressives in more ways then one. In this case, it's because he believes any negotiation, any compromise is a sign of weakness. The left knows this about the President just as much as he does, mainly because they've been as unwilling to compromise on anything for far longer than he's been in power. The difference is they don't have any cards to negotiate with pretty much by choice. They don't have any equal political power in Congress the way Trump does with his base and the GOP.

What they have is  moral outrage and really nothing else. The fact that the left has spent the last twenty years trying to motivate its base with the idea that moral outrage alone is enough to get what you want is another in a long line of reasons why they have so little political power.  Schumer knows this because when he acted like a grownup and opened the government, MoveOn immediately reacted by arguing that they needed to hold town halls starting to primary Democrats like Schumer and Fetterman who acted like grownups. Because Schumer's been in politics for a long time he knows you can't beat the left and you can't join them because any alliance you have with them is temporary at best.

So he chose option 3. He appeared to join with them for as long as he could and did what he no doubt planned to do anyway. This time, however, Jeffries did not act in rage and said he supported him, a stark contrast to last time. And while Schumer may be the loser in this battle that may only come out in the future. There are bigger losers now: including Trump and progressive Democrats, according to the Hill. Moderate Democrats – aka adults – are considered among the winners and the left has no immediate recourse to take action against those who committed the cardinal sin of pushing back against them.

And there are signs that even this disappointment may be temporary. In the most recent text message from MoveOn the opening sentence dealt with how while some of them may be disappointed by how the shutdown ended, they should focus on how the Democrats did so well in last week's elections. Considering not 24 hours ago I received an email from them  demanding Schumer resign this is a pretty quick turnaround for the left. They won't acknowledge that they were wrong or that Schumer was right so they're going to do the other thing they do well – change the subject.  Considering just how well the elections turned out for them last week they may be just tuned into reality enough to know that they have to focus on the future. And that means concentrating on the midterms.

I have little doubt that this will come again: the left is like the right in that they neither forgive nor forget. In this case, I suspect they're going to do everything in their power to push this into the background. It's bad enough when MAGA beats them but when a political veteran completely outmaneuvers them?  Best to pick another battle and there'll be plenty of them soon enough.