First, it has been a little over a week since the last post. I had a 9 day break from work and I couldn’t bring myself to stay minute to minute everyday with what is going on in this Country and around the world. So I didn’t. I needed a reprieve from the simmering rage that lurks below the surface of my being as I watch so many of my peers in this country sit idly by while we go careening into the abyss that is Trump’s authoritarian government. Unfortunately, my refusal to engage with the news did not mean that it stopped happening.
Perhaps most dispiriting, at least it’s where I’m going to start this week, Chuck Schumer and a cadre of senate democrats bent the knee to their liege in the making by choosing not to vote against the GOP Continuing Resolution for the budget. This is the first step in Trump’s effort to pass a budget which guts many services that work and advocate for the average American and add an estimated $4.5 Trillion to the national debt, all to service expanding tax cuts for the wealthiest few in the nation. The hypocrisy of the debt growth alone is enough to want to light things on fire.
Schumer’s defense of his decision was to avoid a government shutdown which he felt would lead to even less oversight on the dismantling of our government that is taking place. A fair point to make, and one I can’t poke holes in or dismiss. However, despite how valid avoiding a shutdown for that reason may be, Schumer capitulated to vote without getting anything in return from the GOP. He asked for no concessions, no guarantees, made no attempt to bargain at all. He threw away what little leverage the opposition party (read democrats) had and gave the GOP everything they wanted with no fight.
The precedent set is grim when taken in context to say the least.
Schumer has shown that the GOP can get anything they want without asking, or even pretending to work in good faith to compromise. We could see in the run up to the vote that the GOP propaganda machine was positioning the narrative that it would be the Democrats’ fault if the government shut down. Anyone with half a brain cell who chose to look at what was happening could see that the only course of action the Democrats had to try and protect the American people was to vote no and play hardball for concessions or guarantees. Yes, their no vote would lead to a government shutdown, but it is the prerogative of the party in charge to reach some semblance of a bipartisan agreement to pass their initiatives. If you want your shit passed, don’t try and pass overwhelmingly unpopular bills that bring harm to your constituents.
Instead, the GOP played schoolyard bully and Shcumer rolled over and gave up his lunch money without even saying “please no”. Except it’s not his lunch money at stake. It’s our, the average working American, livelihood. Without Social Security, medicare/medicaid, and many other services on the chopping block Americans will suffer. And when you look at the data, a large percentage of those suffering will be Trump/GOP voters. As much as I am empathetic to struggle and suffering on an individual scale, this is EXACTLY what they voted for when they let propaganda blind them with racism and misogyny.
Now the American People will pay the price for Schumer’s cowardice and any leverage that the Democrats may have had to try and protect the people is gone. Next time there is a vote for something important, maybe avoiding another shut down, all the propaganda machine has to say is “Well they voted for the CR but they won’t vote for this? They must hate America”. And in the back channels of Capitol Hill, where these deals are hammered out, there will be zero reason for the GOP to even pretend to be making an effort at bipartisanship. Chuck Schumer did not want to take the drastic step of refusing to capitulate, instead trusting that the “establishment” would continue to act as guardrails to reign in the out of control, petulant, want to be dictator in office and his party.
Schumer, and the rest of us, need to come to grips with the fact that the “establishment” is dead. It died on the steps of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 after a long, drawn out battle against oligarchs and authoritarians in this country and their desire to see liberal democracy burn at the stake for their wealth.
The guardrails are gone. We are watching as the President of the United States threatens judges who rule against him and insinuates that he doesn’t have to follow their judgements. We have to begin treating this as the threat that it is. The Founders and Framers, for all their faults, knew what tyranny looked like. The American Experiment was founded on the express principle of standing up to tyranny. The Experiment is failing.
— The People. Of, By, and For
The People. Of, By, and For 
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