If Democrats Have a Better Plan, I’d Like to Hear It

In about three weeks, the government's funding will run out. Democrats will face a choice. Join Republicans to fund a government that Trump is turning into a tool of authoritarian takeover and vengeance, or shut the government down. Democrats faced a version of this choice six months ago. This was back in March. Doge was chainsawing its way through the government. Civil servants were being fired en masse. Government grants and payments were being choked off and reworked into tools of political power and punishment. Trump was signing executive orders demanding the investigation, I would say the persecution of his enemies. He had announced shocking tariffs on Mexico and Canada. We were in the full muzzle velocity stage of the presidency, and Democrats at that moment seemed completely overwhelmed and outmatched. I kept hearing people say they lacked a message, but it's not what they lacked. What they lacked was power. They didn't have power. They didn't have the house or the senate, but they did have one sliver of leverage. In order to fund the government, senate Republicans needed democratic votes, not just one or two votes. They needed at least seven Democrats to reach that magic 60 vote threshold in the senate. House Democrats wanted their Senate colleagues to hold those votes back. They wanted a shutdown. But Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate Democrats, didn't. He voted for the funding bill and he encouraged a crucial number of his colleagues to do the same. The bill passed. To many Democrats, this seemed completely insane. Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think it is a huge slap in the face and I think that there's a wide sense of betrayal. I myself don't give away anything for nothing. I think that's what happened the other day. This was Democrats' first real opportunity to fight back against Donald Trump. And what had they done? They'd folded immediately. What were they good for? I'm afraid that it may be time for the Senate Democrats to pick new leadership as we move forward. I think it was an act of strength, of courage, and I knew that most people wouldn't agree with me. During this period, this early schism in democratic strategy, I was talking to people on all sides of it, to Schumer, to House leadership, to senate leadership, to members of congress with different theories of what should be done. And if I'm being honest, I didn't think this was an easy call, that there was one right answer. The house's argument, Hakeem Jeffries' argument, was that a shutdown creates a crisis. A crisis creates attention. And attention gives Democrats the chance to make their case to the American people. Schumer's argument was threefold. First, Trump was being stopped in the courts. There were dozens of cases playing out against him and he was losing again and again and again. Shut down the government and you might eventually shut down the courts, …