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Dems in Congress Need Leadership [1]

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Date: 2025-03-17

Daily Kos diaries are still arguing whether it was the right thing for Senate Democrats to allow the Republicans to bring their budget resolution to the floor and pass it. There are decent arguments to be made on both sides, but the real problem Democrats have right now is an inability to demonstrate unity and strength.

A real Senate leader would have brought the caucus into a room and said, “Look, there are arguments to be made on both sides of this issue, but right now what we need is to be bold and decisive. So either we allow the Republicans to pass their awful budget and then point out how awful it is, loudly, on the daily, or we vote for a shut down and point out how this is awful and Republicans should come to the table and negotiate instead of holding the government hostage.”

There was a way for Dems to vote either way, as a block, and continue to demonstrate resolve, thoughtfulness and strength. But they went a different way...because their leader, Chuck Schumer, is a leader in name only.

We do have some people in the Senate capable of that kind of decisiveness, boldness and messaging discipline.

Chuck Schumer is not one of them.

Frankly, until she stepped down from leadership, Nancy Pelosi ran the Dems in Congress. She got Chuck on board when she needed him on board. Now Nancy has been reduced to shouting from the sidelines, while leader Jeffries is still learning the ropes. At least he got the House to work together (minus one Democrat) on the budget issue.

I’m not sure how Chuck could look much weaker. He’s cancelled his own book tour, citing security concerns. I’m sure he’s getting death threats. Pretty much everyone who is anyone receives death threats these days. I think the real reason he is hiding out is that he knows he will face protests from members of his own party. That anger isn’t going anywhere.

And so once again, in the midst of the s#!tshow that is United States politics, even though we are swamped with protesting against Trump, Musk, Vance and the Heritage foundation and boycotting anti-DEI companies, we have to find a way to get Chuck to step down and allow for someone with intestinal fortitude (and preferably someone younger) to step up.

I personally think that Chris Murphy is the right choice because he is pushing for economic populism but basically anyone who can pull the Senate together, work well with the House and stand up and speak for the institution without sounding like the accountant you avoid at a cocktail party will do.

There are some petitions out there. The current movement is a drive to boycott donations to Democrats until Chuck steps down. But we need to do more.

We need to call and write our Democratic members of Congress and let them know that they need to get their act together. It needed to happen before the Trump speech before Congress, and before the budget votes, and now it is way past time.

In a sense, as long as Democrats in Congress project strength around areas of agreement and make it clear that they are working for the American people instead of for their donors, it doesn’t matter if they make some missteps here and there. We can’t have any more instances where ten Democrats vote to censure a member whose bold action at Trump’s speech to Congress received positive feedback online. If these people are not brave enough to pull together and they won’t step aside then we need to primary them and get them out of there.

If Democrats can’t pull it together to win control of Congress back in 2026, then Democracy is already dead at the Federal level and we should focus entirely on state and local issues and rebuilding the party from the grassroots up.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/17/2310802/-Dems-in-Congress-Need-Leadership?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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