Which, of course, is just more gaslighting from Trump.
No, man - I thought your post terribly well-written. I have not heard anyone even. attempt to explain how the policies of the last 2 months are a good thing, and will have good long term results. About all I can imagine is they hope the US will be a successful bully, and our past allies will consent to be our vassals. Or that the US and Russia together can bestride the world - perhaps carving up spheres of influence with China, and that that will be a preferable situation so long as we can harm minorities and enhance wealth disparity.
Mostly, tho, I cannot imagine how EVERY SINGLE R in Congress is going along with this. It boggles my mind that they are so willing to bend a knee to Trump, casting away Congress’ traditional authority, and supporting downright ugly and irrational policies. A good many C-critters are quite wealthy, and well past retirement age. NOT ONE of these fuckers is willing to say, “This is not the way I want to go out!” There is not one Cheney or Kinzinger willing to retire or be primaried to stand up for what is right (or against what is so clearly wrong)? Unbelievable!
You’re making the mistake of internalizing Republican propaganda. Don’t even start down that path. Republicans want the opposition to point fingers at each other. Let’s not.
Well, we used to have two Republicans like them in office…
Or what if that’s what they want us to think while they colonize the weak points of the party?
If Schumer were purposely tolerating and appeasing Trump for his own gain, how would that look different from what he’s currently doing?
Maybe I misunderstood you when you said
We all laughed, but is it possible that Trump is cooking something with those corrupt state Democrat parties? If they manage turn NY and CA into a kind of Manchin/Sinema axis of fecklessness, hoo boy.
Which sounds like you’re tarring all the Democrats in California and New York. I have no problem with criticizing Schumer individually.
I don’t believe for a second that Schumer is colluding with Trump or Musk, but colluding with big donors/corporate interests? Sure, that’s probably very likely.
Or someone has some really good dirt to smear him with.
This is the thing I wonder about. Republicans are ceding power to someone else. If there is one thing I always thought true among all congresscritters is they are always trying to scrape power their way. Each person wants the most power possible.
Here, they are just willingly giving it up. They will rue the day they decided to hand over power to Trump for basically nothing.
I actually think a lot of them won’t, particularly among the hardest MAGA core. They don’t see their job as actually legislating, or keeping the executive in check. They think they’re their to support Trump, trigger the libs, and get their face on TV. Letting Trump have free reign with all their traditional powers just frees up more time for the fun stuff that they actually care about.
They’re handing over power to Trump because Trump, and Musk, are reimagining what America is.
A thing that they haven’t been able to do on their own since the country, in their minds, changed for the worse because of FDR and Earl Warren.
I don’t think it’s Republican propaganda to call out that the Democratic party apparatus of New York appears to be compromised in favor of Republicans. In fact Republicans would prefer us to think that it’s not corruption, it’s just totally a happy bipartisan coincidence that Shumer, Hochul, Adams are so often entirely aligned with the needs of the Republican party as Sinema and Manchin were.
The propagandistic view is suggesting that this is just normal bipartisanship. The realistic view is pointing out that the Democratic party has rats in the walls, and it seems to be stemming from the fact that New York Democrats seem to be for sale to the highest bidder. With regard to California, Gavin Newsom and Ro Khanna are up to some weird shit too.
That’s what makes me think there may have been something to the Republicans’ “red New York” rhetoric. Maybe they know they’re close to buying it off with bribes and corruption. It sure looks that way.
I for one look forward to the return to traditional and correct values. Women will not be able to vote or work. This will free up their time so that they can stay home, raise the kids, and support their husband. We will no longer have to deal with gay “rights”. Gender norms will be enforced. Kids who think they are ‘trans’ will receive psychotherapy and medication until their mental illness is cured. We can bring back conversion therapy so that gays and lesbians no longer have to suffer through life with unnatural desires.
The lesser races will have their unearned place at the table taken away. The white man will be in charge and others will greatfully acknowledge his natural superiority.
It is morning in America!
/sarcasm.
You only left out;
The Gilded Class will return to their rightful place of total power.
The poors and their bodies will return to their rightful place as the, literal, grease that keeps the Machine of Industry running smoothly.
Elon Musk will cover himself in sandtrout silicon chips, enter The Singularity, and become the immortal God-Emperor of Mars.
The arguments for passing over one of the few points of Dem leverage are better than moronic. Here’s my list, inclusive of iiandyii’s points.
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Musk/Trump will take advantage of a shutdown to shut the government down further (like they have been doing in the past, and will do in the future. This sounds like a strategic argument, but it’s really about timing. The Federal workers union grasps it, which is why they want to bring things to a head.)
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Related, the Republicans don’t care about shutdowns because of #1. (There will certainly be a little posturing like this, but Trump habitually makes concessions and reversals, as seen by his foreign policy.)
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The Dem Senate got caught flat-footed. Their strategy was, “Just let the GOP House bill fail, then we won’t have to worry about it. If it succeeds, line up a bunch of message votes for the base.” (That’s Schumer’s strategy as I understand it, and frankly if this was a policy dispute, I would be ok with it. Because the GOP has the majority. But we’re in a process of illegally dismantling the foundations of US foreign policy (USAID), prosperity (NIH), and freedom/prosperity (democratic processes). It’s getting some pushback. But not from the Senate Feckless Caucus. Only from the Fight Caucus.)
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The Carville Analysis, which is true. This is a battle for public opinion. Play possum for now, then win during the midterms. The problem is we’re doing serious damage to the body politic in the meantime. It would take more than a curbstomp to reverse that in 2026. We might get a decisive victory but not a 100 seat flip.
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Sigh. We’re in the first 100 days. In an ideal world (snort) it’s a little early for the Dems to pounce. That’s awkward but you have to take the opportunities that you have. By “little”, I mean literally 30-90 days early. Trump is headling us to a recession/inflation cycle, followed by repressed economic growth. But the early stages are only in the stock market, which take alone is understood to not be especially reliable.
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Kick things down the road. Schumer is working from an old playbook. The US has no institutional experience in defending democracy and to my knowledge we’re not having detailed discussions with eastern European experts, except in the fringes. The general mistake the Feckless Caucus is making is, “Obeying in advance.”
Dem leverage is limited and they do need to think 2 or 3 steps ahead. That’s their job. The concessions they can garner are extremely limited I think. But you need to flex power to have power. It’s true that authoritarian power is brittle and public opinion should evolved against tyranny in the next 60 days. But if the opposition is not willing to exercise what power they have when they have it, they will be perceived by the authoritarians as weak. That’s bad for the country.
From below:
Trump has not openly overridden a court rule yet. The courts operate slowly and their power is reinforced by pushback in other parts of the government and US society.
From the late Kevin Drum, a list of 14 court cases lost by Trump this year:
Here’s a list of court orders that have put a halt to various Trump/DOGE firings and spending cuts. It’s by no means comprehensive, just everything I could find at the moment. Its purpose is to show that neither Trump nor DOGE are steamrollers. They’ve had some wins, but they’ve had a lot of setbacks too.
Those court-ordered “overrules” only count when the Trumpvernment acknowledges them and obeys them. What percentage would you say that was?
That has nothing to do with what I said. Have they been acknowledged and accepted, or have they been ignored?
Here is a link of Trump ignoring court orders: Judge loses patience with Trump admin for ignoring order
And here is another: Trump Officials Are ‘Pretending’ a Judge Didn’t Bar His Anti-Diversity Orders
Thank you both for putting in the work. I still have this unsettling feeling that Schumer is playing for the wrong team.
Czarcasm: If you click the link, you will see a little about what’s happened with each court case, as of Feb 24th. My observation has a lot to do with your question, but if you want a comprehensive and up to date answer it will require hours of work and compilation. It’s a good question though.
HMS: Schumer is working from an old playbook. I don’t pretend to understand Senate-brain, but this is fairly standard stuff for in a non-standard time. Schumer is fairly agile: he adjusted his game within 24 hours which is pretty good.
What we need is one single Senator to gum up the works until next week, then take things from there. The Dems won’t “win” this match because they simply don’t have majorities. The most they can do is push back a little.
Nancy Pelosi diplomatically encourages the Senate to toughen up:
Another article gets it all wrong- (I was only able to read some before paywall came in)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/13/democrats-continuing-resolution-government-shutdown/
and again
The Democrats can not shut down the government, nor are they responsible if the government does shut down. That is 100% on the GOP. They are the majority party in both houses. The GOP- not the Dems- can simply come up with a clean CR, and it will pass.