I am absolutely appalled. And it’s not as if the shutdown wasn’t hurting; it is affecting my family directly since I have a family member who works for the federal government and is furloughed. But this deal that Schumer made is pathetic and wrong. Democrats just had a huge electoral win, mainly because people are so fed up with what Trump and MAGA are doing. They don’t like Democrats, but most know that the Republicans are nuts.
So what did the establishment Democrats do? They took that huge win and all the momentum it provided and threw it away for an empty promise.
Schumer is a small pathetic man whose time is long gone. And anybody who votes for this capitulation should be drummed out of the Senate and political life. They clearly do not understand what is happening in this country and have no business trying to call themselves leaders.
Schumer has said outright that his main political project is to "keep the left pro-Israel". He is, of course, failing at this, and the left just elected a candidate whom many who are pro-Israel see as a direct threat in Zohran Mamdani to the most prominent mayoral post in the country. Schumer doesn't want a left which is galvanised if it ends up electing too many candidates like Mamdani, so he arranged (with votes from retiring Senators and others not up for election in 2026) to blunt the Democrats' momentum before it could result in a wave of candidates like Mamdani being voted into various offices.
If that is true, he just proved the point of every person who believes Israel holds too much sway in our domestic politics. I am very pro-Israel and I am very anti-Netanyahu. The kind of zero-sum thinking that cannot square that difference is what so many dislike about the Democratic establishment.
It may be. I know he said that quote, for sure, and it's an observable fact that a segment of the left* has become anti-Israel in recent years. (And not just anti-Netanyahu; as I said in another comment just a few minutes ago, though, however, there is a difference between being anti-Zionist and being antisemitic**, and there is a long history of anti-Zionism among Jews.) The extent to which it was his motivation in this matter is inference on my part.
**That is not to say that the anti-Israel sentiment has not spilled over into antisemitism: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40407057 Banning a rainbow flag with the Star of David from a Pride Parade is outright antisemitism.
Removing Chuck Schumer as the Senate minority leader is the least that should happen. He and the eight who voted for this capitulation should have no place in any Democratic institution or establishment across the board. The DNC should turn its back, donors shouldn’t take or return their calls, clubs should revoke memberships, etc… There should be a full court black listing that only ends at death. Accountability now!
Absolutely AGREE James - we need to call for donors to abandon them and remove any power they have (remove from committee assignments) and pepper them with bad press - there needs to be a MAJOR message sent that capitulation will have the most severe consequences
"Eight Democratic senators voted to end the shutdown last night." Last night I said to myself, these eight Senators are the worst Benedict Arnolds since Benedict Arnold himself. I am beside myself with anger, frustration, and fear.
Did Schumer "sign off" on this horrible deal? Did he even have to in order for it to pass? Or did eight Senators just "go rogue" from the party line?
I don't think they went rogue, more likely the establishment Dems rounded up just enough votes to cave w/o leadership shouldering the blame. We need to hold them all accountable!
This shutdown had more symbolic significance than anything Democrats have done since Biden was elected. It was a touchstone, a recognition that Democrats were starting to accept that Americans are getting shafted, by design, and something needs to be done about it. They had a perfect opportunity to channel all the frustration among our fellow citizens and define the issue of Americans facing more risk and precarity in every aspect of life, and to make the next few elections about that issue. Now that is all gone, along with any leverage they had to get ACA subsidies back in place, which is no small thing in and of itself.
He knows what time it is— it is freaking time for him to retire. He is a major problem, not a solution. Old boy backroom pecking order politics brought Dems to this cliff.
We had pulled together for this fight! We'd just won decisive elections! We were helping our neighbors manage food and job insecurity. I think the tipping point was air travel, it cost them personally when wealthy people were affected. 😠 Airlines are big donors
it's biblical too. 40 days and 40 nights. almost smells like the christian nationalists are playing us all along.... and schumer colluded with house repubs while pretending to vote no and either 1) lying that he didn't know 2) being so inept as a leader he can't control his own caucus or know what they're doing
I wonder where you think the money is to come from to pay for that medical care, to pay for the hospitals, medical clinics, and doctors to provide it. America, like most western countries, is up to its ears in debt. And the medical system is a major budgetary item.
As UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once put it, the problem with borrowing is that one eventually runs out of other people's money.
Strange how we never "run out of money" for tax cuts that flow upward or for executive compensation that would make Gilded Age robber barons blush. We have the money. We've simply decided oligarchs shouldn't pay for the civilization that made them rich.
No doubt some merit in that argument -- see Google's response below. But hardly a panacea-- still some major shortfalls.
And probably some reason to argue that the rich are that way in large because of all that borrowed money which is what they mostly wind up acquiring. Looks good on paper, but people don't seem to get that money itself is just an abstraction -- as philosopher Daniel Dennett once pointed out -- and is only as good as what it can buy. Just printing money doesn't do much to create any tangible services or products.
I am absolutely appalled. And it’s not as if the shutdown wasn’t hurting; it is affecting my family directly since I have a family member who works for the federal government and is furloughed. But this deal that Schumer made is pathetic and wrong. Democrats just had a huge electoral win, mainly because people are so fed up with what Trump and MAGA are doing. They don’t like Democrats, but most know that the Republicans are nuts.
So what did the establishment Democrats do? They took that huge win and all the momentum it provided and threw it away for an empty promise.
Schumer is a small pathetic man whose time is long gone. And anybody who votes for this capitulation should be drummed out of the Senate and political life. They clearly do not understand what is happening in this country and have no business trying to call themselves leaders.
It was that exact "huge win" that may well have prompted this.
https://jewishcurrents.org/chuck-schumer-cannot-meet-the-moment
Schumer has said outright that his main political project is to "keep the left pro-Israel". He is, of course, failing at this, and the left just elected a candidate whom many who are pro-Israel see as a direct threat in Zohran Mamdani to the most prominent mayoral post in the country. Schumer doesn't want a left which is galvanised if it ends up electing too many candidates like Mamdani, so he arranged (with votes from retiring Senators and others not up for election in 2026) to blunt the Democrats' momentum before it could result in a wave of candidates like Mamdani being voted into various offices.
If that is true, he just proved the point of every person who believes Israel holds too much sway in our domestic politics. I am very pro-Israel and I am very anti-Netanyahu. The kind of zero-sum thinking that cannot square that difference is what so many dislike about the Democratic establishment.
It may be. I know he said that quote, for sure, and it's an observable fact that a segment of the left* has become anti-Israel in recent years. (And not just anti-Netanyahu; as I said in another comment just a few minutes ago, though, however, there is a difference between being anti-Zionist and being antisemitic**, and there is a long history of anti-Zionism among Jews.) The extent to which it was his motivation in this matter is inference on my part.
*For that matter, it's occurring on the right as well: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5558286/israel-republicans-antisemitism-carlson
**That is not to say that the anti-Israel sentiment has not spilled over into antisemitism: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40407057 Banning a rainbow flag with the Star of David from a Pride Parade is outright antisemitism.
the far left fetish of making everything about Jews is really getting old
There's a difference between "Jews" and "Israel". Jewish anti-Zionism has a long history.
Consider, for instance, these UK Cabinet memoranda penned by Edwin Montagu in 1917 opposing the Balfour Declaration:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7640371
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7640698
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7640771
Removing Chuck Schumer as the Senate minority leader is the least that should happen. He and the eight who voted for this capitulation should have no place in any Democratic institution or establishment across the board. The DNC should turn its back, donors shouldn’t take or return their calls, clubs should revoke memberships, etc… There should be a full court black listing that only ends at death. Accountability now!
Absolutely AGREE James - we need to call for donors to abandon them and remove any power they have (remove from committee assignments) and pepper them with bad press - there needs to be a MAJOR message sent that capitulation will have the most severe consequences
It's appalling, shocking, infuriating. Thanks for this article, Mike.
"Eight Democratic senators voted to end the shutdown last night." Last night I said to myself, these eight Senators are the worst Benedict Arnolds since Benedict Arnold himself. I am beside myself with anger, frustration, and fear.
Did Schumer "sign off" on this horrible deal? Did he even have to in order for it to pass? Or did eight Senators just "go rogue" from the party line?
I don't think they went rogue, more likely the establishment Dems rounded up just enough votes to cave w/o leadership shouldering the blame. We need to hold them all accountable!
This shutdown had more symbolic significance than anything Democrats have done since Biden was elected. It was a touchstone, a recognition that Democrats were starting to accept that Americans are getting shafted, by design, and something needs to be done about it. They had a perfect opportunity to channel all the frustration among our fellow citizens and define the issue of Americans facing more risk and precarity in every aspect of life, and to make the next few elections about that issue. Now that is all gone, along with any leverage they had to get ACA subsidies back in place, which is no small thing in and of itself.
He knows what time it is— it is freaking time for him to retire. He is a major problem, not a solution. Old boy backroom pecking order politics brought Dems to this cliff.
Everything that you said. The Democratic leadership and every fucking spineless Democrat needs to resign. This is a huge betrayal.
We had pulled together for this fight! We'd just won decisive elections! We were helping our neighbors manage food and job insecurity. I think the tipping point was air travel, it cost them personally when wealthy people were affected. 😠 Airlines are big donors
Schumer’s still reading the clock on the wall while the house is on fire. Forty days in the wilderness and he comes back with a participation ribbon.
it's biblical too. 40 days and 40 nights. almost smells like the christian nationalists are playing us all along.... and schumer colluded with house repubs while pretending to vote no and either 1) lying that he didn't know 2) being so inept as a leader he can't control his own caucus or know what they're doing
Truly. What a circus!
Yeah. Too smart by half.
It's time for Schumer to step aside. Not just as minority leader, but as the senior senator of NY. His time has passed.
There is no restoring my trust ever. I’m done with this con.
Thank you for giving such clear voice to the thoughts screaming in all of our heads. You could not be more spot on.
I wonder where you think the money is to come from to pay for that medical care, to pay for the hospitals, medical clinics, and doctors to provide it. America, like most western countries, is up to its ears in debt. And the medical system is a major budgetary item.
As UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once put it, the problem with borrowing is that one eventually runs out of other people's money.
Strange how we never "run out of money" for tax cuts that flow upward or for executive compensation that would make Gilded Age robber barons blush. We have the money. We've simply decided oligarchs shouldn't pay for the civilization that made them rich.
"Tax the rich", amirite? 🙄
No doubt some merit in that argument -- see Google's response below. But hardly a panacea-- still some major shortfalls.
And probably some reason to argue that the rich are that way in large because of all that borrowed money which is what they mostly wind up acquiring. Looks good on paper, but people don't seem to get that money itself is just an abstraction -- as philosopher Daniel Dennett once pointed out -- and is only as good as what it can buy. Just printing money doesn't do much to create any tangible services or products.
Google's Gemini: https://www.google.com/search?q=tax+the+rich&oq=tax+the+rich&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDwgAEEUYORiDARixAxiABDIHCAEQLhiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABDIMCAoQABgUGIcCGIAEMgwICxAAGBQYhwIYgAQyBwgMEAAYgAQyBwgNEAAYgAQyBwgOEAAYgATSAQkxMTAyNGowajeoAhSwAgHxBWd0rkd2wCli&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8