Chuck Schumer's Controlled Opposition: Why Democrats Protect Republicans Over Voters
Cowardice, Complicity, or Collaboration: Democrats’ Dance With The Devil Reaching Predictable End
Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY)
What can we learn from the actions of Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) in protecting Republicans from themselves? How can we justify this when he fails so spectacularly to do so for his own constituents?
For too long, the US progressive and social-liberal left has believed that institutions and norms would protect them from the worst inclinations of capital accumulation and tech-feudalist oligarchs. They have slept in a bubble of assured safety based on a premise that exists on paper alone. Today, some of those same people are watching as the embers of that make-believe world settle around them.
For me, the primary lesson is that Democratic leadership is far more feckless and out-of-touch than most Americans are willing—initially, at least—to face in this moment. Across social media and in discussions with family and friends, it is clear that many see the party as a lost entity: a chicken that lost its head somewhere around the Democratic National Convention and has been kept alive on the false hope of their constituencies, sustained by hundreds of millions of dollars hand-fed into what should have long ago been left as a corpse.
Indeed, the puppeteering of the party that gladly took credit for Civil Rights reform for decades has reached a place where it is difficult to see the actions of Democratic leadership as something so simple as cowardice. No, there is something more here—a pattern of behavior that reeks of intentionality and complicity.
It is no secret that many on the left have long described the Democratic Party (and other similarly liberal organizations) as "controlled opposition": a bought-out group that gains immensely by simply stepping aside when necessary and thrives when positioned to claim powerlessness in the face of unstoppable conservative policies. Looking at Schumer's spinelessness and his blatant dismissal of voices shouting from far below, demanding he bring the fight to the GOP, this narrative begins to cohere more clearly.
Who, after all, benefits from Democrats backing down at the final hurdle? Not the voters who elected them. Not the Americans he claims to represent. No—it is the Republican Party alone that benefits as they are spared the burden of responsibility for shutting down the government. Trump and Musk can continue as planned without fear of having to meaningfully engage with the issues crushing the average American.
Just like New Mexico, New York, and California, your state has a political machine that has been empowered for far too long and only heeds the wishes of constituents when they align with the profit-seeking of those in power. In your state, you have Democrats who are actively undermining voters simply because they know they are not beholden to you—they profit just as much as the opposition by maintaining the status quo.
We shouldn't be surprised by this. Not really. If you have participated in the nitty-gritty of your local Democratic Party, I am confident you can remember a time when you and your peers organized to make change within your own organization, only to be completely ignored by those in positions of power. For me, the most prescient example came following a pre-primary vote by New Mexico constituents to adopt demands for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine and the complete cessation of all arms sales and military aid to Israel as the official stance of the New Mexico Democratic Party. During this convention, 74% of state delegates voted for this policy. Following it, not a single New Mexico Democrat enacted or honored these demands at the state or federal level.
Minority Leader Schumer desires nothing more than to avoid responsibility for his own intransigence—to relieve himself of ownership for the manufactured paralysis that has afflicted those beneath him. As the country cries louder and louder for relief, he and his enablers seek to maintain their position of influence and security by claiming to work in Americans' best interest by avoiding a shutdown.
Anyone paying attention knows this to be a lie. The government has been effectively defunded and shut down since the first stroke of the pen on Inauguration Day.
President Donald Trump congratulates Chuck Schumer for his adherence to right-wing policies and his continued steersmanship of the Democratic Party.
They have played their part to the point of ruination, sacrificing the very institutions they once guaranteed in furtherance of their own goals and at the expense of every American. While Democrats bemoan their minority position and their complete loss of legitimacy, their consistent rightward movement over recent years could have led nowhere else than our current predicament.
Do what you know to be right: condemn your lying representatives, begin to recall them, mobilize to primary every single one. If they won't represent us, we will find those who will.
Thanks for reading and please subscribe! All I do here is 100% reader-supported, so if you can spare a few dollars, it really helps me keep working on the stuff I love!
