Despite their strong showing and sweeping victories across local and statewide elections across the nation, Democrats on the hill proved that they remain feckless in the fight against Trump’s disastrous governance.
In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill won the governorship and outperformed the polls, which predicted a dead heat race. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won the race for governor and flipped the state back to blue. In New York, Zohran Mamdani defeated Trump-endorsed and disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo for mayor. And, in California, Democrats successfully passed Proposition 50, which will allow the state to counteract the Republican-led mid-cycle redistricting effort to maximize their lead in the House.
In the days following the general elections, eight Senate Democrats capitulated and voted to end the government shutdown, in lockstep with Republicans, in exchange for nothing. The federal government underwent the longest shutdown in U.S. history — Democrats, fresh off multiple significant victories at nearly all levels of government, had more leverage than at any time in recent years. Yet, Democrats failed to gain anything tangible out of it despite their repeated emphasis on the need to extend the premium subsidies in the Affordable Care Act that had been set to expire at the end of this year.
Spearheading the so-called bipartisan negotiations were Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Angus King of Maine. The three of them agreed to advance the government funding bills onto the floor of the Senate in exchange for a “promised” vote to extend the healthcare subsidies later next month. The promise had no guarantees of success or votes from Republican senators. For all we know, the vote will likely fail since Republicans have repeatedly expressed their reluctance to extend the subsidies during the government shutdown.
What is even more interesting, however, is that a few other Democrats also broke away and voted alongside Republicans. Voting in the affirmative, Senators Cortez Masto, Durbin, Fetterman, Kaine, Rosen, as well as Shaheen, Hassan, and King, all voted for the government funding bills despite widespread opposition from the Democratic base and their colleagues within their caucus.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this. This is the very same “high ground” behavior we’ve seen earlier this March when ten Democratic Senators voted on the continuing resolution to extend government funding through Sept. 30 (which is how we got to the shutdown fight for the past month).
While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not vote to reopen the government this time around, his nonexistent ability to lead the Democratic caucus was on full display. Schumer has been met with fierce opposition from his own base, he remains unpopular, and has faced calls to step down from leadership due to his inability to keep the Democrats united against Trump and the Republican Party. Numerous figures within the Democratic Party have publicly expressed their frustrations and discontent with Schumer, many of whom say he simply cannot meet this moment and should step aside and let someone else take the helm.
Democrats won big on election night: the voters were on their side and shifted further to the left compared to last year. Yet somehow it wasn’t enough for Democrats on the Hill to hold the line in the shutdown fight.
Democrats should be the party of opposition to Trump. It should be a party that not only opposes Trump and his agenda, but counters it by offering unabashed, clear-eyed progressive policies that address the pain and misery of Americans. Their agenda should fight for working people and not corporate interests, push to protect immigrants, lower the costs of living, and address and fight back against the fascist takeover of our government.
We cannot continue down this path of feckless and spineless leadership that is too afraid to lead when voters are craving for strong, battle-tested leadership against Trump. Democrats will continue to be at risk of losing the narrative if our so-called leaders continue to acquiesce and give up prematurely.
One thing is clear: you can’t defeat the scourge and rise of fascism with washed-up leadership that capitulates to its opposition. The Democratic establishment has got to go.
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