Chuck Roast
When a sports team fails, players are cut and coaches are fired. The same doesn’t go for political parties. Instead, the pent-up frustration just keeps penting. And right now, the pent is too damn high as Democrats are eating their own over the decision whether or not to support a GOP bill to avert a government shutdown. The choices are both pretty bad: Shut down the government or acquiesce to an administration that seems hell bent on deleting it. As Cory Booker explained, “We are in a perverse, bizarro land where we’re having to decide between letting Donald Trump wreck the government this way or wreck the government that way.” Chuck Schumer has opted to wreck it by voting to support the GOP stopgap spending bill. The decision has set off something of a generational war between younger and older Dem leaders. NYT (Gift Article): Young Democrats’ Anger Boils Over as Schumer Retreats on Shutdown. “Younger Democrats are chafing at and increasingly complaining about what they see as the feebleness of the old guard’s efforts to push back against President Trump. They are second-guessing how the party’s leaders — like Mr. Schumer, who brandishes his flip phone as a point of pride — are communicating their message in the TikTok era, as Republicans dominate the digital town square. And they are demanding that the party develop a bolder policy agenda that can answer the desperation of tens of millions of people who are struggling financially at a time when belief in the American dream is dimming. In other words, the younger generation is done with deference.” (Mos def.) The divide, it’s worth noting, is not entirely generational. Nancy Pelosi has split with Schumer: “Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.”
+ This headline is unlikely to cool the Chuck roast. Trump praises Schumer’s “courage” in backing spending bill. Here’s the latest on the Senate vote on bill to avert government shutdown ahead of midnight deadline.
