By now you’ve all seen that the government is back up and running because Schumer figured out he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
There’s a few points in all of this that I don’t see much chatter about.
The fact of the matter is Schumer knew going in he wasn’t going to get anything out of this, at least in the short term. He didn’t have the votes, and didn’t have the support amongst the electorate… Even among his own party. I suspect and suppose that old Chuckles was playing the longer view here.
Certainly it cost him short-term image.. but as has been demonstrated often enough over the last 40 years the American voter, particularly the Democrat voter has a rather short memory.
It’s interesting to note that even members of the press… even the outlets that normally carry Charles Schumer’s water for him… were calling this Charles Schumer’s government shutdown. That’s kind of earthshaking in itself, and perhaps a clue of deeper rifts within the Democrat Party than we’ve been led to believe.
Something else of Interest… It was Schumer who put up the white flag. Not Trump. Now how could he do that… How could he end the government shutdown if this was Donald Trump’s shutdown? Suddenly, the Imaging on this is all wrong in the short term for Schumer. But as I say I suspect he was playing the long-term here.
Personally I find it quite encouraging that the Republicans actually stood their ground on this. It’s my view that Schumer less than half expected it. I suspect that the ripples on this one are going to be playing out for at least the next three years as other negotiating points come up. For the first time since Reagan was in office we’ve actually got somebody that’s willing to play hardball with the Democrats. I don’t think they know how to handle it. Trust me, Democrat tactics will change based on this experience.
I see a lot of people In a lot of corners telling everybody that Schumer got absolutely nothing out of this deal. Au contraire, he actually did get rather a lot out of this despite the appearances…
First of all he got a rallying cry for the troops. True there’s a lot of bitching and moaning going on amongst Democrat right now but there would have been a lot more if he done absolutely nothing. If he hadn’t played this little game of government shutdown. As it is right now he’s got a rallying cry, a motivational point to play so the next couple of Elections. That’s something he wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t shut down the government over DACA.
So his shutting down the government was a win-win situation. If the Republicans caved, he would have won outright. If they didn’t cave he at least got the rallying cry for the Democrats in the next couple of Cycles.
And and finally I think what finally turned the tide to a large degree was a large number of people reminding Schumer and the Democrats that Schumer himself had promised never to shut down the government over immigration issues. So much for the value of Democrat promises. There will be a large amount of anger over going back on his word, particularly among those who do not vote Democrat. Enough I think two cancel out any games he might have made by generating the rallying cry.
I recognize that some of these comments are at least partially contradictory, but that’s how these things play out. Any game of political Intrigue has contradictory points. It becomes a game of percentages at that point. A game of momentum.
