How do you solve a problem like Chuck Schumer?
Might Democrats benefit from zooming out?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Schumer’s a stooge, corporate lapdog, past his prime, needs to go, closet Republican, has no spine, a fossil, all the rest. I get it. I feel everyone on their anger. What you’re hearing in my tone is not exhaustion with one facet of the Democrats or the other. It’s with all of us.
We can’t have everything, Democrats.
Do we want to be a big tent? Then we have to accept the fact that there are many factions in the party who will be displeased when things don’t go their way, but we cannot complain that people see us as being in disarray.
Do we want to be united and fight as one? Then keep your displeasure the fuck off social media and away from the cameras and take the fight backstage.
We’ve cried with alternating envy and disgust for so long about how the GOP and now MAGA stand behind McConnell without so much as a peep no matter what their individual opinions, should they possess such things. We’ve said, “Why can’t we be like that? It works so well for them!”
Well, THIS is why we can’t be like that. Schumer chooses the horse shit instead of the cow shit and probably breaks promises in the process (tell me McConnell didn’t do that) and there is a groundswell of outcry from Democratic voters and politicians alike to replace him.
Dig, if you will…
For the last five days our eyes have been completely off the ball and fed the broken media’s undemocratic obsession with making the Democrats look feckless, thereby letting Trump and Musk run about the toy store unsupervised. And the media LOVES it. With this we have given them carte-blanche - or at least a great reason - to ignore all that Musk’s highest-paid nanny has been doing.
Allow me to suggest a what-if scenario: an alternative reaction to Schumer’s vote for the awful zero win choice he made last week.
What if no matter what - NO MATTER WHAT - direction Schumer maneuvered the vote towards, the Democrats shut the fuck up and squared up behind him in solidarity? Especially, ESPECIALLY, the Democrats in the House and Senate?
I’m only asking you to truly imagine it. What public, media, national narrative would follow?
Unite in public, brawl in private. Behind closed doors. The narrative would not be Democrats are in disarray (even though we are for serious and legitimate reasons.) The narrative might have been “Despite broad differences of opinion, Democrats united behind the minority leader because there are good reasons to avoid a shutdown, like not handing fascists like Trump and Musk the keys to political Fort Knox.”
What tf now?
Should he step aside? ONLY under the right circumstances. Because my question to those calling for Schumer to step aside is, who will replace him? The next several in line (Durbin, Murray, though I do really like her) are not great options. I have my personal dream Senators I think would be great, but the reason Biden's hand-off to Harris was so smooth - and yes, incredibly successful - was because it was clear, immediate, clean, and fully supported by him (as opposed to what would have happened had Pelosi gotten her wish of a contest.)
Schumer stepping away presents no such possibility and the last thing we need is another internecine drawn-out brawl about who will lead us. That delights all the wrong people and channels our energy to exactly the wrong places, in my opinion.
Square up, be pissed in private, and get behind the imperfect leader in public to attack the real and profound danger the path ahead presents. It's what Republicans do, and they have used that strategy to achieve their goals over the course of the last 50 years. If Schumer is to be replaced, be strategic about it.
Schumer is not Biden for MANY reasons. But we can look to the Biden-to-Harris transition for the things that were done right, the things that were done wrong, and if I might be so bold, the ultimate result that came from pushing him out.