A friend and I learned over the weekend that we’d had strange but amazingly similar reactions to the CR showdown on Thursday.
Both she and I noted that we had initially supported standing firm and being willing to have a shutdown. And our first response to Schumer’s saying he would not vote against cloture was major disappointment. We felt betrayed.
Then both of us, independently, for different reasons, ended up rethinking our positions later that same day.
I asked myself: What was my on-going undercurrent of misgivings about supporting a shutdown based on? And I saw that what had been bothering me was that, if you imagine the shutdown going on for two or three weeks, it seemed to me that the republicans, while SAYING the shut down was a terrible thing, would privately be very happy with it. They could say that not a single republican voted for the shut down and they cared more the people that were hurt by it than the democrats did.
Whereas actually they would feel that the shutdown damaged government (a good thing in their minds), and they didn’t give a damn who was hurt by it.
But the democrats WOULD give a damn about hurting people, and there was a reasonable likelihood that the dems would have to eventually cave, probably without getting anything in return.
Because it’s just about impossible to win a standoff with your opponent when you are threatening them with consequences that THEY like and YOU don’t.
It could even muddy the waters, at least with some of the public, about who’s looking out for people’s interests. Which could be really unfortunate because Trump and Elon are steadily losing the critical battle for public opinion. And it appears they will continue to do so. My point? When your opponents are busy digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves, don’t take away their shovels.
My friend also went through a last-minute change, but for different reasons. She was worried that a shutdown would give Trump and Elon more space to do more damage and mainly that Trump might use the shut down as an excuse to declare martial law.
In any case, we both came to feel that the potential benefits from a shutdown didn’t equal the potential risk.
Which brings me to another point. I am no Schumer fan. I often think he doesn’t take a strong enough position and is such a mumbly-mouthed spokesman that he doesn’t get dem’s positions across with any force.
But a lot of leftist dems, like my friend and I, found it a close call from the beginning as to whether to support the shut down or not, for purely strategic reasons.
Maybe our final positions were wrong. Maybe going for the shutdown would have been wrong. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a no brainer.
Personally, as much as I’d be happy to see Schumer replaced, my guess is that he said what he said because that is what he thought was the best course for the democrats and the country. And it takes a lot more courage to take a position that you know most of your FRIENDS don’t agree with. It takes much less courage to take a position that you know most of your friends agree with.
For example, George Washington was without question a brave man when the bullets were flying, but I think one of the most courageous things that he ever did was to steadfastly maintain while at Valley Forge that he had twice the troop strength he actually had. In fact half his troops were sick and unable to fight. But he let the enemy AND the Continental Congress (because leaks to the enemy were inevitable) think that he had far more battle-ready troops, in hopes that the British would not take advantage and attack.
As a result many thought he had lost his nerve. “He’s got all these troops, and he won’t attack the British in Philadelphia!” Washington was even willing to risk being replaced as Commander in Chief, because General Horatio Gates was actively lobbying to take over.
As a military man, being willing to be thought a coward by your friends and countrymen—that’s real courage.
As for Schumer, we may never know if he made the right decision or let slide a major opportunity, but his standing up for a very unpopular position can’t be automatically assumed to be cowardice.
Along the same lines, I also think primarying dems who voted against the shutdown is wrong. Can’t we respect that other progressives honestly have a different opinion about strategy than we do?
