He’s the man conservatives love to hate, or at least grumble about when they see his face — Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. For nearly two decades, Schumer has been leading the Democrats’ charge in many cases on familiar issues such as immigration, healthcare and financial regulation.
Most recently, he’s pledged to impede President Trump — using the threat of a government shutdown — as regards to the president’s plan for a U.S. border wall with Mexico and the deportation of illegal immigrants. In the past, Schumer has taken predictably Democratic positions on abortion, gun laws, taxes and social justice.
He’s known in the Senate for being a “publicity hound,” appearing on television news shows and in major urban newspapers with alarming frequency. Former Republican Senator Bob Dole once joked that “the most dangerous place in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and a television camera,” while the Huffington Post claimed that, following Barack Obama’s second election, the president’s “Inauguration Day belonged to Chuck Schumer” due to a photo of the senator peering at the president from behind Malia Obama going viral.
Lately, however, as regards to policy and the Democrats’ direction, Schumer has taken a hard-Left position, paying heed to some of the louder of his constituents — a number of whom recently appeared at a raucous protest outside the senator’s Prospect Park, Brooklyn home in what was informally called a “What the F***, Chuck?” rally.
These militant New York citizens would like nothing better than to see Schumer and his fellow liberal lawmakers “delay, obstruct and resist” Republicans’ efforts to pass conservative-friendly legislation. And that’s just what Schumer and others have promised to do, knowing that at least in the Senate, Democrats hold enough of an edge, with 48 votes, that legislation that requires a 60-vote majority can be held up.
In one of his most recent actions, Schumer called on his Democratic colleagues to filibuster the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch. But such an effort would be useless if Senate Republicans choose the “nuclear option” of changing Senate rules to confirm Gorsuch. President Trump has already stated he would favor such an option being utilized.
But the truth of the matter is that Schumer’s intransigence is actually the Democrats’ downfall. By refusing to talk to their counterparts on the other side of the aisle and to the president himself, Democrats are only ensuring that Trump and his Congressional allies move further to the right as Republicans know the chances of concessions or reconciliation with the party of the Left are nil at this point.
The day after his election, Trump reportedly called Schumer, seeking areas in which the two might be able to work together. In his business career, Trump was known as a dealmaker, not as an idealist.
But rather than having conversations, Democrats have taken a hardline approach, attempting to block not only Trump’s cabinet nominations, but his sub-Cabinet appointments as well. The Trump administration has been told by Democrats there’s zero interest in bipartisan legislation. The divisions were eminently visible when Trump gave his recent State of the Union address, and half of the audience refused to stand and applaud.
Thanks to this resistance, conservatives should be happy that they’re able to move ahead unfettered with many of their legislative priorities; imagine how much worse the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) would be if Schumer and his fellow Democrats had said they were willing to compromise on some of its points.
In fact, from a strategic point-of-view, compromise would be the smarter choice — this would allow the Left to sow further division in the Republicans’ ranks. But instead, Schumer and the Democrats are focused on pure hatred; they want nothing less than the impeachment of Trump, and they don’t want to give the appearance of waffling on any issues.
Unfortunately, the chances of Democrats reaching across the aisle are slim to none. They are placating their hardcore base. Instead of winning minor political and legislative victories, they’re winning nothing, and looking like losers, especially as more evidence comes to light that allegations of Russian collusion with Trump’s campaign appear to be completely baseless and — as Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes announced on March 22 — there may indeed be more to claims of Obama wiretapping Trump Tower than the press has been reporting.
All of this only helps the Republicans satisfy their own supporters and further alienate Democratic blue-collar voters who voted for Trump. Last summer, Schumer derided these constituents, saying that “for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two, three moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
But come election time, it was not to be; not only did the Democrats lose Pennsylvania, they also lost Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. In fact, according to the Washington Post, of almost 700 counties that voted for Obama (twice), “a stunning one-third flipped to support Trump” in the election of 2016.
That just goes to show that millions of Obama voters are angry at Democrats like Schumer who arrogantly dismissed them; in November, they decided that maybe giving Trump a chance wasn’t such a bad idea. And now, these same voters see Democrats digging in and obstructing everything Trump is trying to do. The message being sent by Democrats to these voters is: “We don’t hear you.”
For midterm election prospects, nothing could be more musical to Republicans’ ears — especially regarding the outlook for the 10 Democratic senators who hail from red states that elected Trump; Republicans only need eight more senators to make the upper chamber of Congress filibuster-proof, and if they can pick them up, they won’t need the Democrats for anything.
Therefore, conservatives should be giving Chuck Schumer a hearty round of applause. His giving into his base’s fondest hopes and dreams is handing Trump and his allies practically everything they want on a silver platter. Conservatives can only hope this will continue into 2018.
