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Coffee Break: Senate Dems Throw Teetering Trump a Lifeline

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Senate Democrats threw a teetering Trump administration a lifeline by folding on the U.S. government shutdown.

The move has divided the national Democratic party and taken the spotlight off a teetering Trump administration’s troubles.

Eight Senators abandoned the Democratic caucus to join Republicans voting to reopen the government “in exchange for a couple of months of government funding and a vote on healthcare that they are bound to lose.”

Schumer in Trouble With the Base

Coming on the heels of big electoral wins for Democrats in last week’s elections, this has infuriated the party’s grassroots base and even motivated a few House Democrats to call for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to resign.

Notable exceptions include House Minority Leader “AIPAC Shakur” Hakeem Jefferies and erstwhile progressive Bernie Sanders.

Despite not being one of the 8 Senators who voted with the Republicans to end the shutdown, Schumer is being blasted over the deal.

Rotating Villain Gambit No Longer Working

That’s because more and more Americans are hip to what Glenn Greenwald labeled the “rotating villain” scam whereby a conservative senate Democrat publicly opposes the party’s key objectives.

This role has been played in previous sessions by Joe Lieberman, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema, but has now been enthusiastically taken up by progressive apostate John Fetterman.

Fetterman (PA) was joined by fellow Dems Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Dick Durbin (IL), Tim Kaine (VA), Maggie Hassan (NH), Jacky Rosen (NV), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), and independent Angus King (ME).

Dems Can’t Keep Kayfabe

Despite MSNBC MS NOW talking heads like Symone Sanders playing stupid as hard as they can, there’s just no sheltering Schumer.

One of the 8, Tim Kaine, broke kayfabe telling a CNBC reporter, “I can tell you this, there were a lot more than 8 that were really happy that the 8 of us voted them the way we did. But I’m not going to put words in anybody’s mouth.”

Shaheen also spilled the beans, saying, “we kept leadership informed throughout.

More damning for Schumer, Robert Kuttner reported:

It has been widely assumed that the group of eight mostly centrist Senate Democrats, who have been looking to broker a hollow deal on Republican terms, were freelancing. In fact, they were acting with the express approval of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and were reporting to him daily.

At Thursday’s meeting, they told their caucus colleagues that they now had ten votes to reopen the government in exchange for no real Republican concessions. At that, much of the rest of the caucus went ballistic, and some of the supposed ten said that, in fact, they were not willing to vote for any such deal.

The leaders of the proposed Democratic cave-in, Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both of New Hampshire, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, then backed down. Only after that did Schumer go public with his proposal to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of the ACA subsidies, along with a bipartisan commission to figure out a long-term solution.
…
The mystery is why Schumer keeps flirting with capitulation in exchange for nothing. Democrats have the political momentum, Republicans are divided, and a majority of voters blame Republicans for the shutdown.

Jeet Heer ripped Schumer in The Nation:

Even though he negotiated the deal, he himself said on Sunday that he won’t vote for it. He clearly prefers to let other Democrats take the fall.

Heer also cites historian Aaron Astor who tweeted,

For Dems, this one will wreck Schumer. But it will raise salience of health care affordability for next November if no ACA subsidy passes. After last Tuesday, Dems know that affordability is THE big issue that will help in 2026, just as it crushed Dems in 2024. GOP has never put forth a real alternative to the ACA so without subsidies, they’ll own major premium increases, whether they like it or not. But Schumer has done a terrible job messaging any of this and he is absolutely loathed by the Dem base now.

Schumer may have torched his own political career, but as I learned in 2006 when I had an inside view of the Democratic party’s reaction to Joe Lieberman losing his 2006 primary, there are more important things to a modern politician than his or her electoral prospects.

Money and power matter to these people. Serving their constituents is not all that high on the list.

As Always, Follow the Money

Despite the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart playing along and blaming Dem “incompetence,” historian Nate Holdren was more accurate when he wrote, “it’s closer to a boxer taking a dive because for behind-the-scenes reasons there’s more money in losing the match.”

David Sirota’s The Lever notes that restaurant and food industry lobbyists got language inserted into the emergency spending bill that “eliminates rules designed to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses at farms and restaurants” and that three of the Dem line-crossers (Kaine, Rosen, and Durbin) received a combined $17,000 from that lobby.

The Lever also reported that the airlines, who have been brutalized by the shutdown, have given $842,500 to seven of the caucus-defying Dems since 2019 and:

$218,000 — representing a sizable 10 percent of the industry’s election cycle PAC spending — has gone to Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) since 2019. Rosen has counted airlines as one of her top industry donors last election cycle… right behind health care and insurance.

But Schumer may have been fighting to protect an even bigger prize: the Senate filibuster which raises the number of Senators needed to pass a bill from a simple majority to a super majority of 60.

Did Schumer Save the Sacred Filibuster?

Another historian, Keith Orejel angrily tweeted, “Let’s be frank. The Democrats sold us all out on healthcare to protect the filibuster because when they get back into power they don’t want to actually be expected to implement serious change.”

Whatever his motives, Schumer is extremely vulnerable and likely in his last term, which has three years left. His New York Senate seat appears to be Congressional Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ for the taking.

Schumer’s noble sacrifice may go down in the annals of centrist legend because the filibuster was definitely in trouble, with a teetering Trump pushing hard to end it, per Punchbowl News:

NEWS — INSIDE THE ROOM per multiple GOP senators…

After reporters were kicked out, Trump said the election results showed that the shutdown has been “worse for us than for them” & that R’s “are getting killed.”

Trump said the GOP will become a “dead party” if they don’t nuke the filibuster.

Trump got into it with Lindsey Graham after Graham tried to make the point that they can still use reconciliation to pass legislation with a simple majority

Trump snapped at Graham: “Lindsey, you and I both know that there’s so much you can’t do with reconciliation…”

Teetering Trump Team Celebrates

For their part the teetering Trump administration is thrilled with the outcome, telling Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo:

The Trump White House, for its part, is cackling – sometimes literally – about the turn of events. Two White House officials, and two other Trump advisers, could barely contain their giddiness when asked by Zeteo about the latest instance of the Democratic elite capitulating to Trump. Multiple Trump aides and allies kept gratuitously using terms such as “losers” and “pussies” as they reveled in the relief from a shutdown that even President Trump acknowledged was getting Republicans “killed” politically.

Teetering Trump Really Is Teetering

And if you’re tired of me writing “teetering Trump” without backing it up, let’s look at some polling on the shutdown and recent election results:

The failure to renew Obamacare subsidies also disproportionately impacts Trump voters:

Trump’s support is cratering with the younger voters who put him over the top in 2024:

Schumer’s capitulation is virtually the only good news Trump has had in the past week.

Before we dive into the survey of Trump’s many woes, just check this reporting on the “process” behind his pathetic 50 year mortgage idea:

This is the same Bill Pulte that Bessant threatened to punch in the face in September.

Check these headlines:

The video from the Duran is of special interest as both they and their guest Robert Barnes are MAGA-sympathetic (at a minimum) and they all agree that Trump has lost touch with is base, is in thrall to establishment types like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and has completely lost the plot on both domestic and foreign policy.

Barnes also compares Trump’s refusal to release the Epstein files early this summer to Biden’s disastrous mishandling of (the long overdue) American withdrawal from Afghanistan: the pivot moment when things went wrong for the administration.

Trump is doing a fine job of destroying his own administration, but rather than throwing him an anvil, Schumer and status quo Senate Democrats have thrown teetering Trump a lifeline.

Those who wish to overthrow Trump also must overthrow the Democratic centrists who enable him.

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60 comments

  1. Carolinian

    Thanks. In Links I linked a Caitlin Johnstone column using statements from a onetime Israeli asserting that an almost universal attitude in that country is to skirt the rules until someone tells them to stop. And so, much of Trump’s agenda is likely to be rolled back if the Dems and most especially the public stand up to the bully. Nobody likes an ***hole.

    Well maybe some do but as Adlai said when told the smart people were all for him: “I need a majority.”

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    1. ForFawkesSake

      There’s absolutely no evidence that we will “go back to brunch” with Our Democrats. They’ve not rolled back anything that expands on executive power, nor have they held any elites accountable. The ratchet goes only to the right and until the gerontocracy is shown the door, Nothing Will Fundamentally Change.

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    2. Candide

      Vocal minorities can build a functioning majority.
      Our commentariat was just given a list of rebel (dare I say it) MCs and groups that can be reached by phone mail to their offices. If revulsion over Schumer’s role in the Senate succeeds, the boost to morale in his party can rise… especially considering how many millions are being trampled by status quo attitudes over Trump’s extremes. Ro Khanna is already hot and active… there are ten more members of Congress in Nat’s action list posted early in the article. Put their phone numbers, local ones as well, in your cellphone… you’ll need them again!

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  2. taunger

    Seth Moulton (MA-6) is angling for Markey’s seat, which drives me nuts. Moulton sucks, but right now I think Markey sucks more for hanging onto the seat rather than finding a good, younger pol to endorse to take it. Instead, he’s fighting to hang on at 167 years old against a right wing dem replacment. This shouldn’t happen

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    1. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

      Yea the Dems’ biggest problem is no bench of potential progressives. The party establishment works very hard to kill any potential rebels in the cradle.

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      1. taunger

        I mean, I guess there is no bench? I’ve been here in MA doing politics off and on for 20 years, so I can say there’s certainly better available than Moulton. My rep, McGovern, would be much better, and then there are certainly state level pols in his Worcester district that could elevate to the fed level, but all of this presupposes that any of the “progressives” actually want that. I could primary my local dem state rep, but if I won the spoils appear to me as a hostile work environment with a 2 hour commute and poor job security. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to do the elected official thing at this point, but also there are potential torchbearers. I wish Ed had done some work to find one.

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        1. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

          Markey is the most responsible party. What is it with this generation of pols that they refused to step down? Congress was NOT this ancient in the 1990s or even 2000s.

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        2. Kurtismayfield

          McGovern looks too comfortable where he is. So does Lynch. I am surprised Clark hasn’t tried to make any statewide impressions.

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  3. Partyless poster

    I’ll never understand why liberals can’t get it through their heads that the democrat party is fake opposition. I’ve had family members who even read NC regularly still tell me to vote blue!
    How much evidence do you need, from Pelosi’s “we need a strong republican party” to Harris rehabilitating the Cheneys to the constant calls to cross the aisle when Republicans never do.
    No real progress will ever happen as long as we have 2 republican parties.
    I’ve gotten to the point where I think being against the duopoly is actually more important than the left-right divide, people need to realize both parties only serve the rich and start supporting 3rd parties now.
    Its either that or violent revolution.

    Reply ↓
    2. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

      No one wants to admit they’re helpless nor do people want to face the possibility that the only way out is through collapse. That stuff scares people off for very good reasons.

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      1. Huey

        Still, we need as much change as we can get or we’ll really be stuck with one of those futures, assuming we survive climate change I suppose.

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          1. juno mas

            Yes. Then we get regional warlords like Afghanistan. I think it will be hyper-inflation that trips the wire. When the lights go out, chaos ensues. The 7 missed meals till insurrection may be in the offing.

            (Ya think Putin is grinnin’ ?)

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      2. Gulag

        The assumption that the only way out for ;populist forces of either the left or right is the hope of social collapse is a highly questionable and tends to derail discussion and analysis of creative policy proposals for possibly improving things in economic, cultural and social/political realms.

        Such thinking also helps minimize efforts to forge a deeper understanding of the structural nervous system that actually runs the entire West.

        After WWII left-wing communism, socialism and populism were viewed as threats to democracy and after 2016 right-wing populist movements are viewed in the same light. I bet The donor classes of both the Republican and Democratic parties just love any kind of thinking which keeps populist forces divided and at each others throats. That way the establishment Repubs and Dems can maybe rule forever.

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        2. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

          That’s why I said it was only a possibility, but it is a possibility and therefore bears consideration which makes many people fritz out and stop considering any possibilities of change.

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      3. Ashburn

        I agree, Nat, the only way out is through collapse, and that is why I love the quote from Milton Friedman, the godfather of neoliberalism:

        “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”

        Trouble is, unlike Friedman, progressives have no incoming president like Ronald Reagan, no well-funded progressive think tanks to match Heritage and Cato, no political party that has spent years grooming its constituents in the ideology of Mises and Hayek, and Young Republican chapters dutifully discussing Ayn Rand.

        In other words, when the coming crisis actually hits, Democrats will be left fighting over how much of a bailout they should provide to Big Tech.

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        1. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

          There has been substantially more work done by Matt Stoller, David Sirota, and others of their ilk to think through the reasons Obama failed and provide a framework (anti-monopoly actual capitalism) for future Dems, it’s just that their ideas have only had minor influence so far.
          We’re very far from having an ideology that’s up to the historic moment but we’re further along than we were in 2008.

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          1. Jonathan Holland Becnel

            I’m constantly telling Stoller & Sirota on Twitter to give up on the Dems and start a new party using economic populism for Americas 250th.

            They’re slowly listening.

            Both of them could start a new party by themselves if they wanted.

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            1. jsn

              In light of the fifty year SCOTUS project to make our erstwhile republic a political market where policy is auctioned for a line on the ballot, the duopoly control of who gets on that line guarantees nothing that looks like a problem to you and me, which is actually a profit center for some oligarch or corporation, can ever get fixed.

              RFKs experience in the primaries blowing a half billion of Brin’s money trying to litigate a third party on to State ballots is as clear an illustration as one can hope for of just how resistant to any real change the current system is.

              This bottleneck, if not opened, requires a much larger cultural collapse to be made reparable from outside the electoral system. Reform through the electoral system is only possible if the system will permit it, which at present it manifestly won’t.

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              1. Detroit Dan

                But RFK did basically swing the election, and he is now Secretary of one of the largest government agencies. So 3rd party efforts must be taken more seriously by the Dems in the future.

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    3. Kurtismayfield

      They don’t want to admit that their votes are wasted. You should see how hostile the mainline Dems are getting online towards anyone that mentions any weakness of the party. The next election they will “Naderize” anyone who doesn’t vote for they 1995 Republican candidate that they run.

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    4. Huey

      Somebody commented recently that they’d never vote D again. I think this is the right attitude. Independents and seemingly unblemished Ds (Like Zohran) only. If the Rs stay in power through 2028 because ‘more voted Independent’ than for whatever creature ‘wins’ the D primary, so be it.

      The ingrained Ds are only there to facilitate the uniparty anyway. Since we’ll all still be screwed, at least if Ds never win again, I can enjoy Trump laughing at them whenever they let us watch tv in the homeless concentration camps.

      It’s almost like this frustratiom with Ds being two-faced incompetents is why Trump got reelected in the first place. Like, how do you manage to to pin the blame on your own ass when practically all the real people were hating on Trump. It’s like a real magic trick, like they genuinely are scammers.

      Reply ↓
      1. Geo

        When I was a little kid my dad took me to see a Harlem Globetrotters game. I remember getting frustrated at the “green team” because it didn’t even look like they were trying to win. Dad explained that they weren’t supposed to win. It was just a show.

        Have felt that way about the Dems for a few decades now.

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  4. Tom_Doak

    Schumer’s seat is safe until 2028, at which point, he’ll either be even more too old than he is now, or gone. He can finally afford to be the fall guy for the Establishment. It’s his last act of service. He has been richly rewarded over the past 21 years.

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    1. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

      painfully good point. I’ve loathed Schumer since I first saw him humiliating Branch Davidians and covering up for that slaughter of innocents in a congressional hearing where Sonny Bono, of all people, really shone.

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      1. Kurtismayfield

        Schumer was actually very good at pressing the flesh back in the day. He would show up at the annual Breast Cancer walk at Jones Beach and talk to all the walkers. I can see how he got where he is, its just the mood of his party is to fight right now, not make deals.

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        1. jsn

          That was the period when the most dangerous place in New York was between Schumer and a camera.

          The Crack Epidemic paled in comparison, at least you knew where it was.

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      2. Geo

        Watching him tear into Clive Doyle in those hearings was my introduction to Schumer. Doyle was such a kind sounding soft-spoken guy and Schumer came across as pure evil. Doyle’s response: “If you thought we were crazy why’d you try to push us to the edge?” hit so hard.

        Got to have dinner with Doyle about a decade ago. Truly a nice guy. Was jarring to see his arms still covered in burn scars from the fire. Asked him about that testimony and don’t remember his exact quote but basically said, “I lost my whole family in that fire and they treated me like I was the one who lit it.” Heartbreaking.

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        1. ambrit

          I met and had a conversation with one of the New Orleans ATF officers who took part in the initial raid where four ATFs and six Davidians died. He stated plainly that the evening before higher ups came to the office itself and picked agents, many desk jockeys, to carry out the raid. They were flown to the Waco airport overnight and bussed to the perimeter of the compound. They got off of the bus and entered a large tent where they were told to choose the firearms they would be most comfortable with from a small arsenal inside. They were then told that they were going in in a half of an hour. They were not told that the Davidians were heavily armed, nor forewarned of anything else.
          When I asked him who he blamed for the monumental cock up, he replied without pausing, “Janet F—ing Reno. It was her baby from the beginning.”
          He never went anywhere without his pistol tucked behind his back in a waistband holster.
          Stay safe, stay off of the radar.

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          1. Geo

            Heard & read similar stories. The account by ATF agent Robert Rodriguez is harrowing.

            Odd to blame Reno though since she was sworn in on March 11, 1993 and the siege began on Feb 28, 1993. https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?8358

            Reno had her issues but Waco was already fubar when she got there. That dude is just deflecting the blame to a lazy scapegoat. Those ATF guys were an early precursor to our current ICE goons. Rodriguez was the only one that earned some sympathy for his efforts to stop the siege.

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            1. ambrit

              The problem is that he was quite adamant that many of the “raiders” had only shot their sidearms at the range two or three times a year. Most of them were office workers, not field agents.
              Reno may have been sworn in just after things went sideways at Waco, but she made the later decisions which developed into the massacre. Reno already had ‘baggage’ from her time in South Florida. Even at that late date, the confrontation could have been settled “peacefully.” I wonder what would have been the worse optics, the raid and resulting firestorm or a slow boring siege.
              I was on a jobsite in South Mississippi in the 1980s when it was raided by Immigration. They were the real proto-ICE. Three vans full of flak jacket wearing agents drive up and unload in the parking lot. They enter the jobsite proper with guns drawn and, as best as I can put it, attitude. ATF may have been as bad, but in general, all of the armed Federal police were and still are addicted to the Big Man Syndrome. As Dad used to say, since he dealt with them inside City Hall at one time, “Give them a badge and a gun and they think they are gods.”
              If indeed “All politics is local,” then heaven help us when the Feds show up.
              Be safe.

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    2. chuck roast

      So, Chuck engineers the roll-over and then votes against the Repubs. Genius. When I lived in Nuevo we had a particularly treacherous city councilor who was practiced at introducing his own bill then trying to pack on bogus amendments. When those moves failed he then felt justification in voting against his proposal. This was a guy who’s dad walked the picket line with PATCO back in 1981. And the low-life actually crossed the picket line and became an air controller scab. Can’t comment on the poor dad.

      Reply ↓
  5. Geo

    Anybody else get this exquisitely timed email from Amazon today:

    “Experience how Amazon One Medical members get more with faster, easier, and more convenient access to healthcare. Try it today with a free 14-day One Medical membership trial*.
    Your free membership trial gives you access to the One Medical app, where you can:
    – Get 24/7 on-demand care at no extra cost
    – Request prescription refills and renewals
    – Message with a compassionate care team”

    With health insurance rates going through the roof many I know are contemplating dropping it (I personally haven’t had it for decades and haven’t been to a doctor in over 15 years except for a medical emergency while in Cuba). As if there weren’t enough vultures in the health care industry it’s going to be a feeding frenzy as people desperately seek out alternatives to the current situation. I wonder how many will buy in to scams like this Amazon grift or will just join me on the “Hurry Up & Die” health care plan.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jason Boxman

      I got that a number of months ago; never signed up for the emails, clear spam and Amazon abusing its monopoly/market power to try to take over yet another market.

      Reply ↓
  6. NotTimothyGeithner

    When Kaine was governor of Virginia, he helped the GOP kill the estate tax in exchange for “working with him on a transportation deal.” The GOP shrugged. Kaine wasn’t bamboozled. He’s simply on the Trump team.

    Reply ↓
  7. Buzz Meeks

    Schumer is one of the top Israeli fifth columnists. From braying on how he Israel’s defender in the Senate to saying convicted spy and traitor Jonathan Pollard has “suffered enough” and got him moved to Israel.
    Schumer sets up making sure a bill doesn’t pass while making a big show on how he “ fought for it” and voted for it.
    Gave up ninety some federal judgeships for a possible Supreme Court justice.
    Wait till you try to get through to his district office.
    Schumer is a traitor and backstabbing scum

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    1. Darthbobber

      I recall Schumer torpedoeing a done deal bill to eliminate the surprise billing plague by introducing a last-minute poison pill amendment.

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    2. Buzz Meeks

      Just remembered that Mukasey was Chuckie’s suggestion for w Bush’s Attorney General. A Bush Democrat, enthusiastic water boarder and a Giuliani law partner. Chuckie, you are judged by the company you keep.

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  8. hk

    Trump is doing a fine job of destroying his own administration, but rather than throwing him an anvil, Schumer and status quo Senate Democrats have thrown teetering Trump a lifeline.

    Are we surprised? If Trump really did go full MAGA, regardless of what one feels about the implications, it’d have been curtains for their projects.

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  9. Pelham

    I believe there are many potential “rotating villains” in the Democratic Party. And they, like many Republicans, adore the filibuster. So is it possible that the following happened:

    After big Dem wins last Wednesday, pressure was growing on Republicans to do something to end the shutdown. And that something could well have been to get rid of the filibuster as Trump was demanding.

    But the filibuster is a very handy tool for both parties, allowing members to advocate for things their constituents want with the reliable quiet knowledge that the filibuster will kill those things in the Senate, thus pleasing not their constituents but the vital donor class.

    So a cadre of Dem senators not up for re-election in 2026 assembled themselves (or were assembled with some help) to cave in despite the great momentum from last week’s elections, thus preserving their precious filibuster against a possible MAGA threat.

    Reply ↓
    1. hk

      Especially since everyone knows, and has known for many decades, really, that filibuster is not “real.” (there were official reports from CRS back as early as 1970s that basically said filibuster is not real and can be revoked whenever a simple majority wants to).

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  10. Jason Boxman

    As I recall, Lieberman took a recently justly deserved fall that ended in his demise. He spitefully nuked Medicaid expansion nationwide in favor of state by state acceptance, as I recall. He died too little too late to do anyone any good.

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  11. Jason Boxman

    So here’s the most expensive Senate races, per Open Secrets

    Most Expensive Races

    So these senators are quite cheaply bought, in fact. And here’s the net worth list, admittedly from 2018-19, so the deck chairs on this Titanic have shifted some

    List of current members of the United States Congress by wealth

    Perhaps it is more of a class issue? Pragmatism as virtue signaling and symbolic and social capital?

    But I have trouble thinking such small relative sums of campaign contributions really bought off these people with such ease. There must be additional factors in play.

    And then of course, individual politics for the races

    Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus broke ranks Sunday and voted to advance a deal to reopen the federal government.

    That’s fewer than the 10 Democrats who broke ranks in March to advance a previous GOP-led stopgap funding bill — a move that sparked a huge backlash against Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

    There are few obvious threads connecting the group who broke the partisan impasse this time. Some of them helped broker the agreement with Republicans over the opposition of Schumer and most other Democrats, who wanted a guaranteed extension for expiring federal health insurance subsidies.

    Most, but not all, previously held state-level office — including four former governors. Most, but not all, come from presidential swing states. Two have announced they are retiring from the Senate after their current terms end, and two are senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

    None are up for reelection in 2026.

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    1. Nat Wilson Turner Post author

      I dunno, I had a friend in DC who always used to say, “it wasn’t the open corruption that shocked me, it was the low, low prices.”

      Reply ↓
  13. Pat

    I think the writing is on the wall that Chuck gets that his days are numbered, both as Leader (minority or majority) and as a Senator. Sure he could also die before his term is up, but that isn’t what we are talking about here. One ofthe consequences of next year’s elections is there is going to be some shake up in both caucuses. Especially since, unlike the current office holders, I really believe that Both parties are going to have the health insurance debacle hanging over their heads. (People may have the memories of goldfish as far as politicians are concerned but it really is not true.) Incumbency will not be the guarantee it usually is. The leadership fight at that point will tell the tale. I think we will also see a few indications not only how the Mamdani term is going, but in how the NYS DNC is looking to handle the shake up in the state’s politics, and the beginnings in regard to AOC and the continuing hold it will have on that Senate seat. NY is more in play than it has been in decades regarding good third way candidates. (I truly believe if the AG primary election were happening this year in this environment, I don’t think Sean Maloney acting as spoiler would have worked and Teachout would be facing Trump’s wrath not Leticia James. Too many people have gotten wise to the shenanigans.)

    And that is also why I was not as disappointed as you were, Nat, with Jon Stewart’s rant. Sure he might have feigned ignorance as to the reasons but flat out said Schumer manipulated the cave in. Not that he had just given up, but organized it. There was even a reference to the earlier one where he was one of rotating villains. Stewart has been one of the most dependable back ups to the charade. He is now somewhat off the reservation. Whether this is him reading the room better than Schumer and the Dems, or just flat out disgust, I don’t know and don’t care. The more “trusted voices” throw away the narrative, the more the scales drop from peoples’ eyes. Stewart, even if he is late, just helped bring a whole lot more from “Chuck wouldn’t do that” to “he did that on purpose!?!” When someone answers their WTF questions. I even hold out a vague hope that it will help move people from Stewart and even more importantly from Rachel and The View to finding better “trusted voices”.

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  14. Michael Fiorillo

    It’s easy and justifiable to abhor center-right and liberal Democrats, and to call for a third party, but let’s be honest: the Greens aren’t cutting it and never will. In the early 1990’s, Adolph Reed and the great union leader Tony Mazzochi tried to establish the Labor Party, which didn’t happen. There was the New Party, which looked promising for a moment, and also could not come close to breaching the electoral duopoly.

    These examples point to a broader, overarching dilemma faced by the US Left: liberals are treacherous and insufferable – Clinton/Obama Democrats essentially preferring Trump to Sanders from 2016-2020, despite their moralistic posing, is proof of that – but it remains true that the periods when the Left was most influential were when it allied with liberals, while leading on policy and strategy. The Popular Front era (1935-45) remains the most successful and influential period for the materialist Left in the US, and Great Society programs of the 1960’s can in part be thought of as a continuation of that.

    I’m more than open to a realistic alternative to trying to take over the Democratic Party, but I don’t for now see anyone offering one. Jill Stein? Jackson Hinkle? No thanks, and beside the point, anyway…

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