What is Schumer Thinking?

Tragedy. When the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on it’s tragedy.
When the morning cries and you don’t know why,
It’s hard to bear. 
With no one to love you you’re going nowhere.
Tragedy. When you lose control and you got no soul.
It’s tragedy.

Tragedy – The Bee Gees

…..

There are certain axioms in politics. These are bipartisan. It’s just the way things work no matter on which side of the aisle your chair may be.

One of them is that no majority leader should put vulnerable members up on a tough vote if that vote is not going to pass. 

In other words, if you are going to force your members to vote on something that will not be popular at home in swing districts or states, at least make sure the bill will pass so that you are making law and accomplishing something in exchange for possibly losing those seats. 

I am no fan of Nancy Pelosi’s but her political skills are unquestioned. She has said many times that she does not put bills on the floor that are going to fail. Smart. 

But Majority Leader Schumer just did that with the filibuster repeal vote. He knew it was going to fail. The filibuster is almost the definition of what moderates and independents like – make the parties come together and compromise to get things done. To vote to repeal it is a message to those in the political middle that you are against everything they believe in. Yet, he made his vulnerable Senators in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Colorado and New Hampshire “walk the plank” and take this vote. 

There is also the short-sighted nature of repealing the filibuster anyways. Mitch McConnell and Kyrsten Sinema have both articulated how Republicans would use this repeal to swing policy hard the other way when they are next in power. For a real world example of how this works, I refer you to Harry Reid’s repeal of the 60 vote threshold for Supreme Court Justice confirmations. Witness Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett and Gorsuch as how this worked out for Democrats. Dems could federalize elections (bad idea) and the next Republican majority could use that federal law to require voter ID and in person voting in all states. What goes around comes around. 

If the vote was going to pass and they were going to get their “Make Voter Fraud Easy” bill in to law, you could understand. But it was never going to pass. So why did he do this when it may cause the loss of their majority later this year?

One possible explanation is that Schumer, fearing a primary from AOC in New York, needed to shore up his regressive credentials in order to stave off such a challenge. If this is true, it means the captain of the ship was throwing his crew overboard into the shark infested waters in order to save himself. Possible. Not very noble. 

I think the more likely explanation is that smart politics has been jettisoned amongst the Democratic leadership now in favor of slavish devotion to the demands of the authoritarian leftist Regressives. Schumer has repeatedly said that they now have 48 votes to repeal the filibuster and someday they will get it. Maybe so. But if it causes them to lose the Senate majority this year, it may be a long time before they get another chance. 

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” seems to be the DC Democrats new mantra. That worked out for Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay. I doubt it will work out this time. 

The hard left’s iron grip on Washington Democrats is bad for the country. But it is even worse for the Democratic Party. 

 I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive fast and live free