Politics is a team sport. Most teams want to win. Great teams do. But some teams are dysfunctional. None more so than the Democrats — as they keep proving. The month started with America’s left resurgent. with an electoral seep. By this week’s end, what had begun with promise ended with finger-pointing. Paradoxically, this may benefit Democratic candidates in 2026.
Since he reascended to the top of America’s political greasy pole, Trump’s verbose and aggressive incompetence has alienated both his new 2024 voters and long-term supporters. Americans have seen MAGA in action, and they don’t like it. On November 5, they showed their opinion of the ruling Party with an overwhelming vote for the other guys. The polls showed close races. The voters made a mockery of the polls.
It was the best of times. But a determined minority of senatorial Democrats made it worse. The Party was winning the government shutdown. Republicans were battered by a determination to raise the cost of healthcare and a callous indifference to hunger. Then seven Democratic Senators blinked. And they let the GOP off the hook. Tim Kaine (D-VA) proved to be one of these pusillanimous invertebrates.
On Sunday, he went on TV and kept digging. He did not aim at the enemy. He lobbed friendly fire at his political allies. His target was House Democrats. He dismissively told host Kristen Welker:
“I don’t tell Ro Khanna or AOC or anybody else who you should pick as your House leader, because I got a full-time job being a senator.”
He added, “I don’t need to freelance opinions about House leadership. They should focus on their own leadership and let senators do what we need to do to keep this country moving forward.”
Oh snap! Why so sensitive? The answer is that Ro Khanna had started the contretemps by tweeting:
“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
He wasn’t done. In a separate interview on “Meet the Press,” Khanna argued that Schumer “doesn’t inspire confidence. He’s not bold. He’s out of touch with the grassroots.”
Ro added:
“He’s someone who cheer-led us into the war in Iraq, he doesn’t have the moral clarity on Gaza, he couldn’t say Mamdani’s name, and this was the final straw where he was not strong on fighting for health care.”
Kaine included AOC in his condemnation of House Democrats because, on Wednesday, she said in a Politico interview:
“There’s a lot of focus rightfully on Leader Schumer, but I do think that when it comes to the Senate, it is Senate Democrats that select their leadership. And so I actually think this problem is much bigger than Leader Schumer.”
The critical reader will point out a potential flaw in my argument. I am criticizing Kaine for attacking his fellow Democrats, while I am also giving Khanna and AOC a pass for what seems to be the same behavior. The difference is that Kaine’s critics are arguing substance — ‘skyrocketing healthcare premiums’ and “cheer-led us into the war in Iraq.” While Tim is arguing process, “they should focus on their own leaders.”
For Kaine, generalities are his stock in trade. He gives himself an attaboy by saying he will “do what we need to do to keep this country moving forward.” But where’s the beef? He compounded his vagueness by explaining that he swung his support to the GOP because:
“Frankly, I viewed the situation last weekend as we had no path, none, to a health care fix until we reopened government. Now we have a path, not a guarantee, but we at least have a path.”
If this reminds some viewers of Neville Chamberlain in Munich waving around a piece of paper while declaring “Peace for our time,” so be it.
The irony is that AOC and Khanna’s broadside at their fellow Democrats in the Senate is giving the Party something it has not recently had — vigor and a fighting spirit. Perhaps there was a time when politicians won elections solely on policy. But in today’s 24/7 screen world, the voters are looking for fire. And for too long, Democratic leadership has been a damp squib.
