People at Town halls are fighting Republicans harder than Chuck Schumer
This is why Democrats lose!
On Thursday, we saw two different events about 450 miles from each other that sum up perfectly the disconnect between the Democratic base and the elites of the Democratic leadership.
In North Carolina, GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards was confronted at his town hall by three hundred people who packed the venue--and more than two thousand outside whose boos caused the building to “rumble”—that together passionately voiced their opposition to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s gutting of programs.
While about 450 miles to the north in Washington, D.C., Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer announced he was surrendering to Trump/Musk by voting to allow passage of the House GOP’s extreme budget measure.
These two events on the same day make it clear that if we want to effectuate real change in the United States, we need new Democratic leadership. I’ve long said that the GOP leaders fear their base. Democratic leaders at best tolerate us—but in general they ignore us. That needs to end!
To be fair, there was a time when Schumer was the right leader for the time—namely under President Biden where he was able to deliver on confirming even more judges in four years than Trump did in his first term. But those days are long gone and gone so should be Schumer, John Fetterman and any other Democrat who appears more concerned with “common ground” than laser focused on fighting to preserve our Republic from the most serious threat facing it since World War II.
Schumer gets that the House GOP’s continuing budget resolution is “a terrible option” and is “deeply partisan”—as he put it. But Schumer defended supporting the GOP measure to keep the government open saying a shutdown was even worse because it would allow “Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown.”
First of all, Trump is already gutting programs and closing agencies based on his whims. As of now the courts are the only thing preventing Trump from truly becoming the “Fuhrer” that he dreams of being. And who knows how long the courts can stop Trump?!
Second, Schumer could use the shutdown as leverage to negotiate a better deal. But instead he is surrendering before the battle even began!
This GOP drafted budget bill does a few things that should be non-negotiable for any real Democrat. First it gives legal approval to Trump and Musk gutting programs without any more safeguards. As Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut warned, this resolution “takes away any remaining restraints and guardrails from the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle our government and destroy the services that help Americans.”
Democratic Senator Patty Murray echoed that very concern noting, that the GOP resolution “creates a slush funds for the Trump administration to reshape spending priorities, eliminate longstanding programs, pick winners and losers, and more.”
Senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona warned this resolution would “give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk” while Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado called the bill “dangerous.”
But it was the words of Sen. Jeff Merkley on Thursday that truly demand more attention. Appearing on CNN, Merkley declared, “The best time to take on a tyrant is as early as possible, and this is the moment.”
He added, “You don’t stop a bully by giving over your lunch money and you don’t stop tyrant Trump by voting to give him more power.”
And to be clear, Merkley was still being pragmatic, saying that threat of a shutdown must be used as “leverage in an effective fashion” to negotiate a different budget deal. That is exactly what Schumer and other Senate Democrats like John Fetterman should be doing.
The fact this resolution gives Trump and Musk more power to legally gut programs demands that every Democrat oppose it. But beyond that the resolution cuts $13 billion in non-defense spending that will inflict a great deal of pain.
For starters, the GOP budget resolution cuts nearly $800 million from Veterans Affairs facility construction. (This is on top of the 80,000 employees at the VA that Trump/Musk announced would be laid off.) The GOP budget bill also cuts rent subsidies by more than $700 million that will lead to 32,000 households being evicted unless they can come up with the money elsewhere.
Alarmingly—as we head into the midterm—the GOP resolution shockingly eliminates “up to $40 million in election security grant funding.” Other cuts range from Army Corps of Engineers construction projects to mitigate flood risks to reducing support for the rural broadband Community Connect program.
But the resolution does increase funding for “Trump’s deport Brown people plan” and increases defense spending by $6 billion—despite the Defense Department already being appropriated $850 billion for 2025.
All of this is why Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona blasted the GOP resolution as “a grab bag of extreme policies.”
No Democrat should vote for this and that is why in the House every Democrat except Rep. Jared Golden of Maine opposed it. This is also why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—after Schumer announced his support for the GOP funding measure—told reporters there is a “deep sense of outrage and betrayal.” She added, “Just to see some Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think it is a huge slap in the face.”
Meanwhile back in North Carolina, we saw what real Democrats look like as they slammed Rep. Edwards for agreeing to Trump and Musk’s gutting of lifeline programs—as well as threatening to purge millions from Social Security based on the lie that there is massive fraud.
“How do you justify cuts to staff of the VA helping veterans, especially those with long term care needs,” asked one constituent who received a standing ovation.
After Edwards defended Trump/Musk’s cuts, an older white man—who identified himself as a veteran—stood up and delivered a profanity infused attack on the GOP Rep: “You have nothing to say but lies.” He powerfully added, “You’re lying. I’m a veteran, you don’t give a fuck about me.”
Even as four security guards moved to remove him, the man shouted: “You don’t get to take away our rights!” as the crowd cheered in support. His final words to the GOP Congressman--which elicited big cheers--before being hauled out of the venue were: “Fuck you!”
That is what a Democrat looks and sounds like. We need much more of that. That type of passion is how we win elections. But when Schumer goes along with House GOP's horrible spending bill, he’s saying there is zero difference between the two parties. That is why Democrats lose elections.
Democrats lose because they choose weak, incompetent and ineffectual leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and then they follow them over the cliff.
Vote against it for heaven's sakes. Don't listen to Chuck. We are ready to be like the Canadians out here. Your votes are performative and honestly do not effect you at all. They will effect you at the voting booth if we get a chance to vote again. As for Chuck's silly reasoning that it could be worse is BS.. It is worse and one way to make it better is with these handful of special elections... Are some (only some) of these politicians even aware of what is truly going on? Or do they all live in ivory towers like the orange stain in his gold tower... get a grip