This is an entertaining article on Chuck Schumer by Dan Henninger, but this sentence makes me raise an eyebrow: “With [his speech indicating that Democrats should not have concentrated on Obamacare], Chuck Schumer was sending an audible signal to state and local party bosses around the country and to peeved donors—aghast at the midterm results—that not everyone in Washington has lost his mind to the party’s Occupy-and-windmill wing.” …Only, the Democrats in Washington have collectively lost their minds. Because talk is cheap.
No, seriously, we have heard this song and dance before. In 2006 and 2008 the Democrats ran a lot of candidates who talked a great game about dealing with American pocketbook issues and finding solutions and whatnot. And the American people elected those candidates… who then turned right around and looted the Treasury for the benefit of their pet causes (called the ‘stimulus’), followed closely by howlingly incompetent, and rapidly-approaching-disastrous*, social-economic engineering (‘Obamacare’). Chuck Schumer was in on that. The man has the morals of a cat – which is to say, he has none, but he’s legitimately affectionate towards anyone who feeds him regularly – so it doesn’t surprise me that Schumer now wants off of the Carousel.
But exactly why should American voters trust that the Democrats have learned their lesson? Or indeed, any lesson at all? – Yes, I know that it’s a partisan Republican political hack who is asking that question, but it’s still a legitimate one. There is a long-term problem in the Democratic party right now: which is that it’s being run by urban coastal liberals. I don’t really subscribe to the arguments found in American Nations (short version: there are about eleven different and distinct countries that make up the United States of America, and the author of that book apparently has a problem with the one that’s in the South) – but you can’t help but notice that the Democratic party is powerful only on the West Coast and the Boston-NYC axis – and is fighting a losing war in the Great Lakes area, while being stalemated in the Tidewater region. This is not compatible with being a functioning national party.
Of course, the Democrats could reverse this any time that they wanted. But in order for them to want to, they need to have a party structure where they can tell a bunch of urban technocrats ‘No’ and make it stick. I cannot see that happening any time soon.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Right now it’s just alarming and frustrating. It’s when the Obama administration runs out of road on which to kick that can that things will become disastrous.
That Schumer-as-cat line is fantastic. Well played, Moe.
*ahem* I would take exception to that line .. but I think I’ll take a nap instead.
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It’s not *entirely* inaccurate .. Schumer gets fed regularly and presumably leaves appropriate gifts (or grafts) of dead mice at the doorsteps of his patrons and whatnot.
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If it develops legs, though, it’s gonna be that whole “many ways to skin a cat” nonsense all over again, I may never hear the end of it.
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Mew
Far from “not *entirely* innacurate”, it’s illuminating.
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Now, can we get some of *our* folks to feed him? Outside of Wall Street, anyway. The Kochs, or Scaife maybe? That would provide immense entertainment value at the least, and even get us some actual policy achievement (’cause honey badger Schumer don’t care) before the Occupy and windmill wing catches on….
… my only concern with trying that, Jeff, is .. it’s just so crazy it may be *exactly what’s going on already* …
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Mew
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p.s. has anyone seen the guy that bankrolled Gingrich’s run recently?
Wouldn’t that be something?
I’m pretty sure the Kochs actually have donated to him. ( They donated money to Cuomo in 2010) just not very much.
I’m actually enjoying the Democrat infighting, cause the Democrats don’t have a history of handling internal disagreements as well as Republicans.
The difference between adults and malcontent adolescents.
The trouble, Patrick, is that too many of ’em aren’t adolescent – their brains have stopped developing.
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Emotionally stunted captures it a bit better, but is frankly too polite.
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Mew
Drugs will do that to people. 🙂
“But exactly why should American voters trust that the Democrats have learned their lesson? Or indeed, any lesson at all?”
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You know that in a few years, the republican party will be in the exact same boat; corrupted further and intoxicated by having been entrusted* with greater power, they will rationalize that the good of the republican party elite is equal to the good of the country…or maybe just cynically grab all they can while they can before the democrat criminal gang takes back over and limits their opportunities for plunder. The end result will be the same: more loss of money, property and freedom to the ever-expanding state. It’s not a matter of ‘if’, but of ‘how soon and how much’.
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* ‘Entrusted’ here really means “found to be slightly less venal, narcissistic and cupidic than their opposition so perhaps slightly less untrustworthy…we hope”
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The republican party is, of course, free to prove me wrong. I would be ecstatic if they exceeded my sub-sub-basement level expectations. Not holding my breath.