By Ross Barkan
The Guardian (1/23/18)

Perhaps Chuck Schumer sees something we don’t. The game of chess he’s playing is indeed three-dimensional and Mitch McConnell’s Republican majority really is on the ropes, ready to cut that deal and fulfill every West Wing fantasy of savvy, sane bipartisan deal-making.

If so, we can all someday apologize to Schumer for how we yelled into the phones of his office, deluged him with mail, and filled our Twitter streams with invective. We can go pay our respects to the great Senate minority leader.

But “someday” isn’t here, and as of 23 January 2018, Schumer’s Democratic Senate looks cowardly and inept to the people most invested in the party’s future. Schumer chose to end the government shutdown without a deal to protect undocumented immigrants. He chose to trust McConnell because the Kentucky Republican promised an immigration vote in the coming weeks.

The disconcerting truth about minority leader Schumer – and a future leader of the Senate, if this blue wave crests high enough – is that he comes from another world and has yet to adjust to this one.

Schumer could have driven a much harder bargain. Republicans certainly would have. It’s why they run America – and Schumer’s Democrats don’t.

There are no serious political consequences for shutting down a government. Republicans did it in 2013, won the Senate in 2014 and the presidency two years later. Arsonists win.

Obstructionism for a moral purpose is noble. Obstructionism for the sake of obstruction – the Republican way under much of Barack Obama’s presidency – is nihilistic.

The progressive wing of the Democratic party and the senators who chose to stand for the Dreamers understand this truth. They know trusting Donald Trump’s Republican party is absurd. They know what they are dealing with.

McConnell is the same majority leader who broke precedent to deny Obama the right to appoint a supreme court justice in the final year of his presidency. Reviled, rightfully so, by both progressives and institutionalists, McConnell could only laugh. He was the boss and he could make his own rules.

Institutions and norms, for the most part, are constructs of who holds power. They can be erased with enough willpower. Before Trump became president, the hard-right faction that now rules the GOP learned this lesson well. Why compromise when you don’t have to?

Torching decorum, and winning

For years, national Republicans have battled mercilessly for the rights of oligarchs and the incineration of the social safety net. They have been successful because they have done away with decorum and seen politics for what it is, at its bloody core: a power struggle among interest groups.

If you aren’t winning, you’re losing. For DC insiders addicted to a favor-trading ideal that no longer exists, this is hard to fathom. The stakes are low for them. They aren’t immigrants, they aren’t Dreamers, they aren’t living in mortal fear of the police.

Republicans know you can shut down the government or block a supreme court justice and still walk away with everything you want. Trump’s presidency is shambolic, but it’s not entirely unsuccessful: if Neil Gorsuch meets the average life expectancy of a male in America today, he will be serving on the supreme court in the 2040s. …

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(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free t use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )

*****

‘Even Worse Negotiator Than Trump’: Progressives Slam Schumer for Caving to GOP on #TrumpShutdown

“A promise from known liars Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, or Donald Trump isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams (1/22/18)

Critics of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed him for caving to Republicans after he announced Monday that the necessary number of Democrats would support a three-week spending bill to end the #TrumpShutdown without first reaching an agreement to protect undocumented youth known as Dreamers.

Schumer’s announcement alarmed immigrant rights advocates and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA)—or Dreamers—who have urged Democrats to “stand strong” and resist a spending measure that doesn’t include a permanent DACA fix.

“Today’s cave by some Senate Democrats was not only a stunning display of moral and political cowardice, it was a strategically incoherent move that demonstrates precisely why so many believe the Democratic Party doesn’t stand for anything.”

“It’s official: Chuck Schumer is the worst negotiator in Washington—even worse than Trump,” CREDO political director Murshed Zaheed said. “Any plan to protect Dreamers that relies on the word of serial liars like Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, or Donald Trump is doomed to fail.”

“The fact is, Republicans do not want to protect Dreamers, and they won’t do it unless Democrats force their hand by insisting that a clean DREAM Act is attached to a must-pass spending bill,” Zaheed continued, adding, “in getting outmaneuvered by Sen. McConnell today, Chuck Schumer has failed dreamers and let the entire Democratic Party down.”

“A promise from known liars Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, or Donald Trump isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, yet despite that fact, most Senate Democrats, including Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, voted to allow Donald Trump to continue to subject an ever growing number of Dreamers to lives threatened by deportation from the only home they’ve ever known,” noted Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America.

Lack of moral courage

“That’s not what moral courage or leadership in the face of Trump’s hate looks like, and it sure as hell isn’t a display of competent negotiating skills,” Chamberlain added. “Today’s cave by some Senate Democrats was not only a stunning display of moral and political cowardice, it was a strategically incoherent move that demonstrates precisely why so many believe the Democratic Party doesn’t stand for anything.”

“Trump and Republicans in Congress stood with their anti-immigrant nativist base, and too many Democrats backed down, abandoned Dreamers, and failed to fight for their values,” said MoveOn.org executive director Ilya Sheyman, who called the stopgap measure a “bad, outrageous deal.”

“The fight is far from over,” Sheyman added, “with days until DACA expires for all recipients and with the Senate now likely to consider the DREAM Act that the vast majority of Americans support, the grassroots progressive movement is committed to mobilizing alongside Dreamers until we win.”

Immigrant advocates weighed in on Twitter, denouncing Schumer for “turning his back on Dreamers” and Democrats for failing to “use their leverage to protect immigrant youth.” …

(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.)

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*****

These 16 Dem Senators Praised For Standing Firm For Dreamers, Decency & Justice (Tammy Baldwin Was Not Among Them)

By Jon Queally
Common Dreams (1/22/18)

As progressives and immigrant rights advocates lampooned House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday for caving to Republicans over the #TrumpShutdown—a deal whose critics say betrays undocumented Dreamers who again face the threat of deportation every day a permanent fix for the DACA program is not reached—the Democrats, and lone Independent, who voted against the deal received applause for standing firm.

Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, was among those who chastised Schumer for brokering the deal and the 32 other Democrats who voted in favor of it.

“America needed leadership today. We did not get it from either party” said Gupta in a statement. “And we are deeply disappointed in a ‘deal’ that relies upon the promises of Mitch McConnell. The road to the Trump shutdown was paved with broken promises and bad faith from Republican leaders, and there is little reason to believe that will change.”

But while Gupta delivered that message to those who voted in favor of the deal, separately her group made sure it thanked the 15 Democratic Senators, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who stood firm in their support for Dreamers and voted against it:

(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.)

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