Within hours, Senate Democrats will cave, and vote for the House’s continuing budget resolution. Enough of them will, anyway, to overcome a filibuster. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw in the towel yesterday. His surrender was likely driven by the realization that, after shrieking that the sky is falling every time the Trump administration delays a payment to a contractor or lays off an employee, the Democrats would look like fools if they then shut down the entire government. And, of course, a shutdown would serve no purpose in any event.
But the New York Times reports that Schumer’s surrender has sparked a crisis in Democratic Party ranks: “Young Democrats’ Anger Boils Over as Schumer Retreats on Shutdown.”
Senator Chuck Schumer’s sudden decision on Thursday to support a Republican-written bill to avert a government shutdown so enraged his fellow Democrats that some were already talking about primary challenges to the 74-year-old Democratic leader from New York.
A primary challenge from Schumer’s left? Great idea.
The eruption of anger about Mr. Schumer’s seeming surrender thrust into public view a generational divide that has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s deepest and most consequential rifts.
Younger Democrats are chafing at and increasingly complaining about what they see as the feebleness of the old guard’s efforts to push back against President Trump.
I don’t know. They voted against pretty much all of his nominees, but they are in the minority.
They are second-guessing how the party’s leaders — like Mr. Schumer, who brandishes his flip phone as a point of pride — are communicating their message in the TikTok era, as Republicans dominate the digital town square.
“Republicans dominate the digital town square.” Sweet.
And they are demanding that the party develop a bolder policy agenda that can answer the desperation of tens of millions of people who are struggling financially at a time when belief in the American dream is dimming.
Good point! The fact that tens of millions of people were struggling financially and the American dream was dimming during the Biden administration is the reason Trump got elected. Maybe they should have developed a bolder vision four years ago.
In other words, the younger generation is done with deference.
Yes, that is the problem. The Democrats have been too deferential toward Donald Trump. Instead of deferring to Trump, they should constantly compare him to Hitler, call him a Nazi and a Fascist, fabricate evidence against him, try to put him in prison, search his wife’s underwear drawer, heckle him when he addresses a joint session of Congress, burn down a few Tesla dealerships and maybe take a potshot or two at him. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Chuck!
