You’re right about much of that – as is The Atlantic article you clearly pulled from – except for two things.
You left out the part about the very real power of those positions to control and modify legislation, and how it is the job of Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House to control what legislation comes to the floor for a vote. Mike Johnson has spent the last two years not legislating, but blocking legislation, and Schumer and Jeffries have spent that same time caving to almost all of what the MAGA Republicans wanted.
You also left out the part about Schumer’s and Jeffries’ cash and where it comes from, and how those big donors are their actual constituents and not the American people.
Honestly, when I read your comment, all I could think was, of course most of these legislators are good. (With the exception of Jeffries, who gave up before he even started.) I’d say some are even great. When it comes to doing what they do best, nobody beats Pelosi, and even Schumer’s good.
They’re just not OURS. They work for others. Jeffries’ list of asinine moves is so long I don’t have time, so I’ll talk about Schumer. Schumer, for example, has said publicly that Israel is his priority. And we know that’s true because he makes absolutely sure that BILLIONS of American taxpayer dollars flow like water to Israel – a country with excellent socialized healthcare and subsidized higher education – so that Netanyahu can use it to commit genocide against their fellow humans while Israelis enjoy a basic standard of living that is much higher than that of the Americans who are paying for all of it.
When Trump cut off already-funded SNAP payments to hungry American families last November, and the Senate was keeping the government shut down to force the administration to follow the law, it was Chuck Schumer who orchestrated the reopening – on the day the airlines shut down, which coincidentally, I’m sure, is not generally a problem for poor people on SNAP but a hell of an issue for people who run PACs. He tried to keep his name out of it, but Jeanne Shaheen, one of the nine senators who broke the deadlock, told reporters that the nine breaking ranks had done so with Schumer’s knowledge and consent.
See how this works? I’d love to be a tech bro, or a crypto bro, or even just a regular Israeli, with Chuck Schumer as my senator. Hell, for all I know, maybe you are and you just don’t want the gravy train to end. I don’t expect Anduril and Palantir to hire a shitty rep: I expect them to get their money’s worth out of Hakeem Jeffries and they certainly are.
But as an American I don’t fucking rate, and I don’t fucking forget, and I DON’T fucking support Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader or Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House.
TL;DR: If you want progressive goals and ideals to never cross a Congressional floor, keep Schumer and Jeffries in their current roles.
As I wrote in the comment he is not my politician. I have the same issues as you with him. However, I think going in blind about what’s really happening makes any move lacking in reason and material evidence and arguments that are based in reality. It’s better to know what really is going on and argue from that standpoint rather than just have a knee-jerk reaction that ignores things.
For example, I don’t know anything about proposed alternative speakers, but I have seen people suggest that El-Sayed be the speaker… He’s my kind of guy. He punches back speaks clearly and seems to be the kind of person that I’m like, but I feel like we barely know how he can operate as a savvy politician who needs to get a handful of Republicans on the Democrat side to finally bury Trump. That requires someone who really knows how to maneuver within the system. Chuck knows how to do that so I’ll give him that. But you’re absolutely right about all the other things that are terrible about him. Can we get someone who’s not terrible who can actually maneuver?
I don’t know about you but this is the first time I’ve heard about this Van Hollen character. Maybe I don’t follow inside baseball enough, and I certainly wouldn’t argue that we should keep Chuck because we know who he is. But I also don’t think just going in blind on some one. We don’t really know much about make sense either.
You’re right about much of that – as is The Atlantic article you clearly pulled from – except for two things.
You left out the part about the very real power of those positions to control and modify legislation, and how it is the job of Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House to control what legislation comes to the floor for a vote. Mike Johnson has spent the last two years not legislating, but blocking legislation, and Schumer and Jeffries have spent that same time caving to almost all of what the MAGA Republicans wanted.
You also left out the part about Schumer’s and Jeffries’ cash and where it comes from, and how those big donors are their actual constituents and not the American people.
Honestly, when I read your comment, all I could think was, of course most of these legislators are good. (With the exception of Jeffries, who gave up before he even started.) I’d say some are even great. When it comes to doing what they do best, nobody beats Pelosi, and even Schumer’s good.
They’re just not OURS. They work for others. Jeffries’ list of asinine moves is so long I don’t have time, so I’ll talk about Schumer. Schumer, for example, has said publicly that Israel is his priority. And we know that’s true because he makes absolutely sure that BILLIONS of American taxpayer dollars flow like water to Israel – a country with excellent socialized healthcare and subsidized higher education – so that Netanyahu can use it to commit genocide against their fellow humans while Israelis enjoy a basic standard of living that is much higher than that of the Americans who are paying for all of it.
When Trump cut off already-funded SNAP payments to hungry American families last November, and the Senate was keeping the government shut down to force the administration to follow the law, it was Chuck Schumer who orchestrated the reopening – on the day the airlines shut down, which coincidentally, I’m sure, is not generally a problem for poor people on SNAP but a hell of an issue for people who run PACs. He tried to keep his name out of it, but Jeanne Shaheen, one of the nine senators who broke the deadlock, told reporters that the nine breaking ranks had done so with Schumer’s knowledge and consent.
See how this works? I’d love to be a tech bro, or a crypto bro, or even just a regular Israeli, with Chuck Schumer as my senator. Hell, for all I know, maybe you are and you just don’t want the gravy train to end. I don’t expect Anduril and Palantir to hire a shitty rep: I expect them to get their money’s worth out of Hakeem Jeffries and they certainly are.
But as an American I don’t fucking rate, and I don’t fucking forget, and I DON’T fucking support Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader or Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House.
TL;DR: If you want progressive goals and ideals to never cross a Congressional floor, keep Schumer and Jeffries in their current roles.
#nochuck #nohakeem
Hakeem Jeffries: https://www.change.org/p/house-democrats-choose-a-new-speaker (currently at 985K signatures)
Chuck Schumer: https://www.change.org/p/replace-chuck-schumer-as-senate-majority-leader (currently at 148K signatures)
As I wrote in the comment he is not my politician. I have the same issues as you with him. However, I think going in blind about what’s really happening makes any move lacking in reason and material evidence and arguments that are based in reality. It’s better to know what really is going on and argue from that standpoint rather than just have a knee-jerk reaction that ignores things.
For example, I don’t know anything about proposed alternative speakers, but I have seen people suggest that El-Sayed be the speaker… He’s my kind of guy. He punches back speaks clearly and seems to be the kind of person that I’m like, but I feel like we barely know how he can operate as a savvy politician who needs to get a handful of Republicans on the Democrat side to finally bury Trump. That requires someone who really knows how to maneuver within the system. Chuck knows how to do that so I’ll give him that. But you’re absolutely right about all the other things that are terrible about him. Can we get someone who’s not terrible who can actually maneuver?
I don’t know about you but this is the first time I’ve heard about this Van Hollen character. Maybe I don’t follow inside baseball enough, and I certainly wouldn’t argue that we should keep Chuck because we know who he is. But I also don’t think just going in blind on some one. We don’t really know much about make sense either.
This^