The Great Betrayal: Chuck Schumer and What Comes Next
The cave-in is a disaster, what follows may no be...
So, we were betrayed by Chuck Schumer and his ten feebs – all who folded and voted out of fear for the Republicans’ punishing budget. Schumer very clearly explained that he betrayed us because he thought it was in our and especially the Democratic Party’s best interest. He explained that, if he didn’t give us the shaft, the public’s focus would be diverted from the everyday Trump shit show to the Trump-led government shutdown, the shutdown would be blamed on the Democrats, and that the Dems’ long term electoral chances would be toast. All three excuses are so absurd that they seem to be a Mars-shot from reality.
Rather than a shutdown distracting us from the shit show, Schumer needs to understand that the shutdown is part of the shit show and that is all he has to say. Chuck, there’s this thing called framing. It’s also called spin. It’s when you create context for your message and stick to it. The Republicans are great at it, so good that they are able to frame fiction as reality and people believe them (see: death panels, Hilary’s emails, Hunter’s laptop, immigrant invasions, Jan. 6 vacation stroll, etc.). Try emulating them, though know that you have the truth on your side, which makes framing much easier, though probably not when you deliver it as a whining, old scold.
Worse, as the Washington Post reports, polling before the betrayal shows that 53% of those surveyed already blamed the Republicans for the shutdown you thwarted! Democrats were not going to get blamed for a shutdown and that is because Democrats never get blamed for a shutdown. Why? Primarily because the shutdown is a Republican tactic. They are the sole party responsible for all the shutdowns we’ve had over the past 30-some years. And because Democrats have been very good at framing shutdowns as a Republican thing.
Way back in 2018, Trump, Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi sat in the Oval Office to talk about border spending and averting a shutdown. Previously, Schumer had caved to Trump, offering him $1.6 billion for “border security,” i.e., Trump’s wall, without consulting his House colleague Nancy Pelosi. Trump wanted $5 billion and decided to negotiate. Schumer and Pelosi came to the White House with a $1.3 billion offer, Schumer’s idea moderated a bit by Pelosi. Trump refused it and tried to use a shutdown as leverage. Pelosi then (metaphorically) shoved Schumer aside and sandbagged Trump, getting him to accept responsibility for a shut down. And this all happened live on television – something Trump arranged without telling Pelosi or Schumer.
A few weeks after that meeting, the trio got together again. And, again, Trump turned it into a spectacle. Shortly after the meeting began, Trump threw a tantrum and stormed out. Though Trump had planned this as one of his showy power plays, like most of his showy power plays, it backfired. Trump was seen as the unreasonable party and weak (he stormed out of his own Situation Room instead of throwing Schumer and Pelosi out, which would have been a bold move, stupid but bold). A couple weeks later and Trump caved. He backed a continuing resolution to keep the government open, delayed border talks, and plotted his revenge.
The public? A CBS New poll found that Pelosi had an “edge” over Trump on the border wall/shutdown negotiation. How much of an edge? Uhhh…71% of Americans opposed a shutdown over a border wall, though most, based on party membership, wanted the other side to fold. Another poll showed that 53% of Americans blamed Trump for an impending shutdown (34% blamed Pelosi, 10% blamed everyone), this while Trump was riding a 58% disapproval number. So, in 2019, 53% of Americans blamed Trump for the “coming shutdown” and, in 2025, 53% blamed the Republicans for the “coming shutdown.” Huh?
This week, not only did Schumer ignore all this, but he pretty much destroyed decades worth of framing by willingly taking ownership of a shutdown.
As far as an electoral strategy: Schumer is foolishly playing to the center and the right, as he is wont to do. Insane. The right will never vote Democratic no matter how much Trump fucks them. They have too much invested in reactionary hate to leave their home for something so foreign (in their minds) as the Democrat’s Babylon. The center is so unreliable that they often don’t take a side until they “know” which way things are going to go.
The people Schumer should be afraid of electorally is the left – both Democrats and lefties who reflexively vote for “the lesser of two evils.” He blew that one. I know that I will no longer be automatically checking the box that says Democrat, not when I have no idea if my choice, when elected, will abandon us when Trump and the right say, “Boo.”
As bad as allowing Trump’s disastrous budget to happen, Schumer did something equally as damaging. By caving to a bully, he made the bully feel strong. After Schumer caved, Trump gave a speech at the Department of Justice where he listed the names of his enemies, people who tried to hold him legally accountable for his crimes, and threatened retaliation – a public pronouncement that would have turned off Nixon and might not have happened if Schumer showed had a spine.
Trump is also trying to take command over Columbia University, ordering the firing of academic scholars and professors, the removal of curriculum, and the arrest of student and faculty dissenters. His “justification” is that the university receives federal dollars, common nearly every American academic institution. This comes after the unlawful arrest of a student protester for freely speaking his mind and Trump’s threats that campus protests might end in bloodshed. These are all American firsts, reminiscent of Soviet policy in Russia and Eastern Europe during that dictatorship. They do no happen unless the bully is emboldened.
I’ve no doubt that these authoritarian moves were on Trump (or Stephen Miller)’s wish list, but with Schumer laying down instead of facing the tanks, Chuck allowed Donald to roll right over him with whatever crazy shit Trump wants to do. Now that is leadership!
So, yeah, I’m pissed off, especially because this surrender was so, so, so, so unnecessary. But I am not surprised. Schumer tried to sell us out back in 2018. He thinks of himself as a grand strategist, one who can’t build or hold onto a proper Senate majority. He is a great fundraiser, though the money comes from Wall Street and corporate donors. He is well past his “buy by” date. And his leadership has become weaker and weaker as time goes on, so much so that it is non-existent outside a fraction of his own party.
The good news in all this is that Schumer’s betrayal (and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries dithering) has Nancy Pelosi so pissed off that she’s talking about Dem leadership “not listening to the women.” Every Pelosi watcher knows that there are different levels of Pelosi’s anger. The deepest one – deeper even than bucking her authority – is not listening to the women. She’s had to deal with that shit ever since she was elected to the House, and she’s dealt with it by beating those who try to hold her down and becomes stronger and stronger. And, now, perhaps, that Pelosi, the one who ripped up Trump’s State of the Union speech (as opposed to hopping on Reagan’s saddle), is back.
Please do not read my thoughts about Pelosi as a contradiction to my refusal to blindly support Democrats. Remember, I don’t personalize this stuff. I’m not led by ideology. I see political parties and politicians as tools, that sometime can be very useful in our screwed-up system. If Nancy Pelosi is going to step back in and be the Dem’s wartime consigliere, I am all for it. She was exceptional in that role during Trump’s first term. At minimum, she is much more up for it than Schumer and Jeffries. Of course, any expectation of any Democrat to grow a spine is to be prefaced by a very big IF…
While I welcome Pelosi as the Dems’ wartime consigliere, that does not relieve us of our responsibility to organize and act. There’s only so much that Dems can do in Congress, even under the best, most radical, most aggressive leadership. There’s only so far that Democrats will go without being pushed. And there’s a lot of other things that must be done that have nothing to do with politicians and political parties, things like building mutual aid networks to get us through lack of public services, economic collapse, and oligarchic crimes.
Going forward, I am going to do far less of a doom scroll through the week’s tragedies and way more of presenting historical examples and strategies of effective resistance, movement building, and transformational change. Our present moment is perilous, but it is not unfamiliar or particularly extreme...yet. Turn away from Trump stirring up the swamp and you will see that we are on solider ground than many assume. We have the numbers on Trump and MAGA. Trump is historically unpopular (again). We have plenty of tools – including history – to aid us. And there are good strategies out there, including solidarity (a good, free read). So, until next time, here’s a song for Schumer.