Leading Democrats vainly hope for a return to the politics of the past – they must engage with the realities of the presentIs this the way the Democratic party ends – not with a bang, but with a whimper? Last week, the party’s Senate caucus seemed poised to do something that they had never done before: block the Trump administration’s proposed continuing resolution, and shut down the government. It would have been a largely symbolic move, one that signaled opposition to the Trump administration’s usurpation of Congress’s spending authority and a willingness to play procedural hardball in order to slow Elon Musk’s radical anti-government agenda. It would have signaled, too, a party willing to take itself seriously as the opposition to a president with authoritarian ambitions.Government shutdowns are unpopular, but so, right now, is the Democratic party: several senators from swing states seemed ready to stick their necks out, ready to bet that it would be better to be seen doing some...
Moira Donegan argues that the Democratic party, led by figures like Chuck Schumer, is out of touch and ineffective because it clings to outdated strategies from the 1990s, failing to confront the current political realities and the actions of the Trump administration.
