UpChuck Chuck

Bob Dole, he dead

A penetrating take on the burgeoning illegality spawned by the Trump Junta is from Timothy Snyder, centered on deportations of innocent people to a concentration camp in El Salvador. I mean, if that is permitted, what isn’t?

Which raises the question of what if anything to do about the most senior Democrat in elective office, one Senator Charles Schumer of New York. My preference is for his removal from leadership and his eventual replacement in the Senate. His latest manifestation of weakness and deficient judgement (the latter is worse) was voting to support a continuing resolution to keep the government open. He brought ten or so other Democrats with him.

Schumer has a record with accomplishments, but he is fundamentally a creature of a bygone era, much like President Biden. They are so mired in the past and in tradition that they fail to recognize the shit that is rolling downhill. They’re looking for Bob Dole, but he is long gone.

A recent article in Jacobin makes the useful distinction between a state that oversees the interests of capital accumulation as a whole, and one dominated by self-seeking kleptocrats.

As the author David Calnitsky points out, there is a related contrast in the fate of two nations — Argentina and Canada — who were in roughly similar economic positions at the start of the 20th Century. Canada went on to join the richer, advanced industrial nations. Argentina lurched into Third World status. The difference, it is argued, was in the perspicacity of their respective ruling elites, their dedication to Capitalism rather than their own individual capital.

There are not-crazy arguments in defense of Schumer’s decision. You can go looking for them yourself. To me, everybody knows the Rs hate government except when it shovels money into their pockets, so a freeze on ordinary Federal services, which is creeping up on us in any event, would be blamed on the Rs. Somebody needs to jam a monkey wrench into the gears. We need drama, to bring the pain, instead of repeatedly receiving it.

It’s been argued that Schumer’s decision on the vote to keep the government open was supported by his caucus. Indeed, we hear ridiculous things from new Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego about deportation. He once looked to have some potential, like Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman. Good riddance to bad garbage.

Even Rep. Nancy Pelosi, as institutionalist and establishment as they come, took umbrage at Schumer’s lassitude. She was quoted as saying “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing.” I never thought I would miss her. We might note that Schumer screwed over a group of Democratic representatives in dodgy districts who took a chance and voted against the continuing resolution.

The case for removal of Schumer as minority leader does not depend on either its actually succeeding or on a replacement who would be much different. To the contrary, I would argue that a replacement campaign sends a good message, namely “Get off your arses and fight,” and if it succeeded, the new Senate Democratic minority leader would be swimming in a different political ocean, as long as he or she was not a tool like Fetterman.

Some people get into the weeds about the latitude a failure to pass a continuing resolution would grant to Trump and Musk. That suggests some maintenance of limits presently, but such maintenance is nowhere in sight. Limits are routinely breached. We see new ones every day.

Not all that much can be expected of Congress. The most life now is being shown at the Bernie/AOC rallies on the “Stop Oligarchy!” tour. The next big date is April 5th, when rallies are scheduled all across the country. The decentralized nature of these, in contrast to the giant-rallies in D.C. and San Francisco model, could be an opportunity for folks in diverse locations to get acquainted and go on to further organizing.

As for New York Senator Chuck, that’s up to the benighted masses of that state. From what I’ve seen, the NY state Democratic Party establishment makes the Kremlin look like a model of democracy, so cracking it will be no picnic. Others are better situated than myself to navigate that snakepit.

I’ve always liked the idea of 3rd party efforts for state and local races. The harm of a spoiler effect is limited, even if you lose, and it’s a way to build organization. Elections are a time when ordinary, unaffiliated people pay a little more attention to politics. Sadly, a likely foundation for such efforts — the so-called* Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — is not organized to play a useful role. It has instituted dumb candidate questionnaires and rigid vetting procedures, and it is deluded by the notion that it can order around elected officials it has supported.

There are other outfits. The Working Families Party is a thing in some states, unfortunately not in my own (Virginia). Justice Democrats does good work. Where I live, the local Democratic county committee stays busy. There are all sorts of outlets for whatever energy you can muster to fight our creeping fascism. In some places, DSA might be doing what you like, since it is effectively a decentralized movement.

*I say so-called because DSA leadership is infected with aspiring, delusional “Marxist-Leninists” who have zero commitment to democratic socialism. They like to pretend they support Bernie, but they are nothing like Bernie.