Voters Finally Realize How Pathetic Democratic Leadership Is

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s willingness to roll over and help Republicans pass a stopgap bill to keep the federal government through September the final straw that broke the camel’s back for Democratic voters. They’re pissed. The fury is understandable, but also surprising in some ways.

Schumer, along with most congressional Democrats, repeatedly declared that they intended to fight the Trump-backed bill. How could they not? After all, Democrats have been warning voters that the Trump White House represented a fascist takeover of the country, and the bill included a provision that allows the President to move money around unilaterally without congressional approval or judicial intervention.

The truth is, Democrats backed themselves into a corner with their antics and Schumer had no plan to fight the bill. He was clearly predicting - and hoping - that House Speaker Mike Johnson would fail to unite the fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus and the rest of the Republican caucus to pass the bill in the House. Schumer’s bluff was called after Johnson succeeded.

Schumer had no plan. He never does.

Schumer voted for cloture, thus removing the 60-vote threshold required by the Senate’s legislative filibuster so the bill could pass with a simple 51-vote majority. In other words, Schumer trampled all over the only leverage his party had, and he did so without getting a damn thing for it. He didn’t even bother negotiating for the inclusion of Democrat-friendly provisions. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi called him out on it, telling an audience that she doesn’t “give away anything for nothing.”

Which brings us to the civil war playing out within the Democratic party. Prominent voices, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are publicly skewering Schumer. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) recently called for Schumer to step down from his leadership role during a town hall in which constituents expressed their rage toward how impotent the party has been in the face of Trump’s Administration.

I’ve been caught off guard by the sheer rage voters have been expressing toward the party. I’m more accustomed to them expressing unmitigated fury toward other Democratic voters who have been raising these issues for years. There are plenty of examples of Democrats playing dead repeatedly over the years, including in Trump’s first term. For instance, in the summer of 2018 Schumer struck a deal with Sen. Mitch McConnell to fast-track Trump’s picks for federal judges. Progressives were furious with Schumer, but the Democratic establishment effortlessly slapped them down. Vox wrote at the time that:

“With Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing looming next week, Schumer reached an agreement late Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to fast-track the confirmations of 15 Trump-nominated judicial picks. Seven federal district court judges were confirmed that day, and eight were put on the docket for confirmation next week.”

Schumer’s excuse at the time, according to one Democratic aide who spoke to Vox, was that Trump’s judicial nominees were “uncontroversial” and the deal with McConnell ensured that Democrats would get a few extra days on campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections. Think about that: Schumer was willing to fast track and approve Trump’s judicial nominees for lifetime roles in the federal courts just so Democrats could have a few extra days to campaign. Believe it or not, a month later Schumer fast-tracked 15 more of Trump’s right-wing judges.

Sen. Bernie Sanders argues that the Schumer hatefest misses the forest for the trees and that he’s merely a symptom of a deeper issue within the Democratic party. Sanders is right. For one, several Senate Democrats joined Schumer in helping Republicans pass the stopgap bill, including John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Mastro, Dick Durbin, Brian Schatz, Gary Peters, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand, who was heard screaming at colleagues who wanted to block the bill.

“It’s not Schumer…it’s the Democratic party,” Sanders told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “You’ve got a party that is heavily dominated by the billionaire class [and] run by consultants who are way out of touch with reality. The Democratic party has virtually no grassroots support,” he continued.

Right now Democrats are fundraising through the same lobbying firm that lobbies on behalf of SpaceX and Palantir. According to Sludge:

“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has taken in another $1.3 million from lobbyists at Invariant—the bipartisan firm representing Trump-friendly companies SpaceX and Palantir—according to a new FEC filing. Hot on the heels of the $2.5 million it took from the same group of lobbyists in January.”

“Invariant hosted a fundraiser for the Senate Democratic leaders last month as well, where its cadre of lobbyists likely helped to bundle big bucks for leadership members like Chuck Schumer or potentially the Kirsten Gillibrand-led Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).”

Democrats also love to raise money from the grassroots by pushing their "resistance" messaging. Well, now everyone is privy to what Democratic resistance really looks like. Despite the fact that Democratic voters have caught on to Schumer’s pathetically poor leadership, the Senate Minority Leader declared on CBS Mornings that he’s “the best leader for the Senate.” The scary thing is that maybe he’s right. The left doesn’t even have a bench in my view and that’s grim to say the least.