Schumer Helps Block the Opposition

The anger against him is only building, not receding.

March 17, 2025

By Marc Cooper

Chuck Schumer finally made a good decision. He canceled his book tour scheduled for next week. No doubt his advisors told him that if he went ahead with it, he’d need to wear a hazmat suit and a football helmet to ward off the apples and cream pies that he would be pelted with.

As it is, some Democrats are planning to hold town halls in the coming days, and they better bring some shields as well.

Five days after Schumer’s capitulation, Democrats are REALLY PISSED OFF. New polling shows that two-thirds of registered Democrats want a new direction and new leadership. They want a leadership that will fight not fold to Trump’s illegal acts.

This, while polling of the general population shows Democratic Party favorability at a record low of 29%. That’s self-inflicted damage, not the work of Trump. If anything, Democratic favorability should be rising, if not soaring, as Donald Trump blatantly accelerates his quest to erect a Presidential dictatorship.

Hours after Schumer led nine other Democrat senators to the slaughter (with multiple reports saying 10 other chicken-hearted Democrats also wanted to vote yes, but Schumer acted as a heat shield), I wrote that this was an unforgivable giveaway to our wannabe dictator.

Now, four days later, I am even more disgusted by Schumer and company—angrier, more incensed, more outraged—because this was more than a capitulation. It was instead a world-class exhibition of the complete stupidity, weakness, and fecklessness of the top Democratic Senate leadership.

They screwed themselves, and they also screwed the entire House delegation (including the most moderate and conservative Democratic reps who stood 100% firm in voting against the MAGA continuing resolution (CR), thinking, mistakenly, that the Senate would have their back instead of crapping on their heads).

Schumer also put a big dent in the broader opposition movement which, fortunately, is not being led by Democratic hacks or ultra-left sects, but rather by honest-to-God angry American workers and others targeted by this despicable gang in power. His surrender only disappoints, depressed and deflates those who want to take on Trump.

I fully understand the argument put forward by those shirking from confronting Trump and letting him own the shutdown. In a few words, they argue that shutting down the government would only make it easier for Trump to keep whole parts of the government closed, forever.

Certainly, that would have been ONE possibility. Another is that a shutdown of services would incense the Republican base, putting pressure on the MAGA Congress to reach some sort of compromise. Another possibility would have been to at least hold the resolution hostage to get at least one measly compromise, like a pledge to not cut entitlements. Or 100 other possibilities.

But I am happy to go with the darkest scenario. The one where Trump and the Muskrats take advantage of the shutdown to cut even more of the government—like that isn’t already happening.

In that case, I would argue it would still be worth shutting it down because the price we are going to pay by not having done so is higher.

This was a golden—no, a platinum—moment to go with the Trump shutdown. At this very moment, we see the broad outlines of an opposition movement arising just as Trump goes pedal to the metal on the road to his personal dictatorship.

This was the exact moment when we needed some inspiring examples of courage from Congress to further embolden the opposition, whether or not they are Democrats. That’s a very high price to pay. Instead of Democrats finally saying, “Enough is enough, and you, Mr. Trump, and you, Mr. Johnson, made this mess, so it’s yours to fix” they folded like wet noodles. And imagine, if you dare, if that defiance was linked to counter-demands and alternatives from the Democrats, like, say, vowing to EXPAND Social Security and Medicare.

I am not sure the Democrats are going to get out of this crater-sized hole before the midterms. The whole party is disgusted, and the voters even more so, to see such a yutz as Schumer lead a retreat. It makes me sick, and I am not even a Democrat.

I cut my political teeth in the 1960s when JFK and Lyndon Johnson led us into the murderous swamp of Vietnam, and the Dems lost me forever. I’m not an idiot, so of course, I voted for Harris and other Democrats when they were the lesser of two evils—because that is what they are—on a good day.

But not all voters’ consciousness was forged in the frontline battles of the 60s, and millions who oppose Trump still look to the Democrats for salvation, or at least a little bit of succor. In rapidly decreasing numbers, it appears. Not as an enabler of a pro-fascist President and his repugnant minions.

Any successful opposition movement is going to include some elected Democrats in the caboose, and one or two might even work their way up to the locomotive. And while I have no way or desire of working inside the Democratic Party, it is my sincere belief that a nice little uprising against its geriatric leadership and its replacement with younger, more principled Dems will or at least should take place.

But back to the darkest scenario in which these incompetents cloak their cowardice. Nothing reveals better what a BS argument they have put forward when you consider this dandy little irony. At the very moment, at the same hour of the day that Schumer and Company were supposedly reigning in Trump from doing even worse things, he broke all tradition, norms, and confidence by personally addressing a hand-picked audience of MAGA-adjacent prosecutors in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice, naming the names of lawyers, law firms, media outlets, and Democratic officials, claiming they were “illegal,” clearly suggesting they be prosecuted. Prosecuted for the crime of not being loyal to him.

To my knowledge, this has never before been done publicly, as Nixon at least did his dirt deeds with the DOJ quietly. It was jaw-dropping on Friday as the DOJ dupes in the audience loudly applauded him, and the joke who is Attorney General praised Trump as the “greatest President ever.” This was Trump acting as if the DOJ, of which the FBI is part, was now his personal gang of investigators, grand juries, prosecutors, and cops.

I mean, what Democrat wouldn’t want to enable that?

The supposedly now somewhat restrained president, two days later, launched massive airstrikes against Yemen, and earlier he told the military to draw up plans to invade Panama (so much for the pinhead sectarian leftists who told us it was okay to vote for Trump because the Democrats were too wedded to war).

And then, less than 24 hours after Schumer’s surrender, the president imposed the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to ratchet up deportations. This act was used in WWI and WWII against German and Japanese nationals, respectively, when we were at war with their countries, culminating in the lockdown of thousands of Japanese—many American citizens—in California concentration camps.

Even Ronald Reagan said this was an outrage and went so far as to pay reparations to surviving Japanese and their families.

But not Trump. He immediately declared that several hundred resident Venezuelans were part of a gang and packed them onto two planes headed to El Salvador, where there was a deal to incarcerate them in that country’s notoriously repressive ultra-max prison. No habeas corpus—the act does not require one. No release of the names of the deported, but confirmed reports say that some had been accused of crimes but had not yet gone to trial nor had they been in deport ASAP status.

The ACLU had already prepared a brief before the planes took off and went to court as the planes were taking off. A Federal judge issued a nationwide injunction, saying the law could only be used in declared times of war and ordered the aircraft to turn around immediately. Trump ignored the court order, claiming the Venezuelans constituted an “invasion.” After the deportees landed in El Salvador, its megalomaniacal president tweeted, “Oopsie, too late.” That was then retweeted by the itsy-bitsy-teeny-weenie little Marco Rubio, the moral pygmy who acts as Secretary of State.

What percentage of that does Chuck Schumer now own?

In the meantime, Trump issued an executive order shutting down:

• U.S. Agency for Global Media (oversees Voice of America)

• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (labor dispute resolution)

• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (nonpartisan think tank)

• Institute of Museum and Library Services (supports museums, libraries)

• U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (homelessness prevention)

• Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (assists struggling communities)

• Minority Business Development Agency (supports minority-owned businesses)

BTW, the Voice of America, which began its life as a propaganda weapon during the Cold War, had morphed into an excellent and non-partisan outlet that is religiously relied upon by millions who live under censorious regimes.

Also, a few hours after the Democratic retreat, the EPA administrator gutted a bushel full of regulations that protect(ed) our water, air, and general environment. And bear hunter Bobby Kennedy chimed in to warn that that the measles vaccination wasn’t safe as the outbreak continues to spread.

On this same past weekend, a Brown University professor holding an American visa was turned away at the airport and deported immediately back to Lebanon as courageous customs officials found photos she had taken at a Hezbollah funeral. Thank God for their heroic work!

In addition, the status of U.S. permanent resident, former Columbia student, Mahmoud Khalil, remains in the air thanks to a restraining order that blocked his deportation for…what crime? None that is alleged other than exercising his free speech rights to attack Israelis and praise Hamas. A victim, not a hero. But his deportation was ordered by the same regime that freed and pardoned 1,600 January 6 hooligans, including those who beat and tried to kill uniformed police.

I could go on, but why bother. Trump’s strategy is obvious. It’s a cliché, but he is flooding the zone with illegal, inhumane, and very dangerous acts, knowing full well he can run faster than the courts can. He knows very well that some of the temporary injunctions will stick, and he also knows by the time they are resolved—which could be months or years—it will be "oopsie, too late," and the damage will be irreversible. Or he might just keep on ignoring court orders, as J.D. Vance has advocated. He also knows that some legal blockades will be reversed by more compliant courts, and he will move ahead. He couldn’t care less what kind of CR got passed or not because he intends to do whatever he wants as soon as he can.

He's also looking to destroy the political—the elected—opposition, but why bother now that they have set themselves on fire.

Most ominously, the six-month CR that 10 Senate Democrats enabled calls for cuts in social services and a bump in funding for the Armed Forces and the Deportation Police. Now, let’s be logical for a moment. Trump ran on a triad of fundamental promises: the economy, crime, and migrants (who he has now referred to as “scum,” “criminals,” “murderers,” “rapists,” and “invaders”).

Going forward, he can no longer beat his chest over the great economy because he has already screwed it, and everybody knows it. That leaves him with criminal and migrant issues to justify his authoritarian rule. And thanks to the Schumer-approved CR, he is going to have millions more in resources to escalate the anti-immigrant rhetoric and deportations that, till now, have been far from massive.

But brace yourself! Scapegoating and persecuting migrants (and their supposed enablers) is going to rapidly escalate. It already has. Mr. Hitler was able to leverage his entire regime on the one percent Jewish population in Germany. Here, now, it’s easy pickings.

Three final quick points:

1. It should be abundantly clear by now that more conscious Democrats need to be included in a broad-based people power coalition to confront Trump, but they should not be looked to for leadership (not that they want to in any case). We need to continue our solidarity and work with the real-life victims of this regime and build an independent movement of opposition. That’s Job One.

2. Remember that the funding crisis had been brewing for months, and everybody on Capitol Hill knew that mid-March was the showdown date. Do you remember any Democrats publicly agitating and mobilizing popular support around this issue? I sure don’t. If they had done the proper groundwork ahead of time, educating their constituents on what was at stake, maybe last Friday’s debacle could have been avoided.

3. It’s no accident that the CR passed last week expires in September. Do you know why? Because everybody (at least in Congress) knows that’s when the big enchilada of raising the debt limit will take place. That’s when MAGA will propose trillions of dollars for a tax cut for the rich, and when Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and subsidies for the ACA will be sacrificed to pay for it.

When do you think the Democrats should start organizing and agitating around that little zinger? And when will we? The threat from the get-along Democrats will then be, “Gosh, this is awful, but if we don’t pass it, the USA will go into credit default.”

Please, pretty please, let Trump own that doozie. At least Bernie Sanders got it right when, on the Senate floor last Friday, he was speaking out against the CR that ten floppy Democrats voted for. This CR, he said, “will provide a blank check for the administration and Mr. Musk to continue their savage war against working families, the elderly, children, the sick, and the poor in order to lay the groundwork for massive tax breaks for the billionaire class.” Nailed it. ++