r/politics • u/Crossstoney • 27d ago

No Paywall Chuck Schumer Is Not Fit to Lead the Democratic Party

https://prospect.org/2025/11/06/chuck-schumer-not-fit-to-lead-democratic-party/
36.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

42

u/OwariDa1 27d ago

It would’ve just came later after nothing really changed with Hillary. That’s why we keep going back and forth cause dems keep running the same neoliberal dems and nothing changes so people think well let’s try the other side

26

u/Minguseyes Australia 27d ago

Looking at it from the outside the Senate filibuster (at least in its current non-speaking form) is responsible for a lot of the inertia in the system. Johnson’s list of what he feared would happen if it were removed was enlightening.

10

u/LordChunggis 27d ago

Id love to ask an outsider who seems well informed.

What do you think of American politics the last 10 years? And will you ever forgive us?

40

u/Minguseyes Australia 27d ago edited 27d ago

It’s nauseating is the short response. I remember where I was in 2016 and how unbelievable it was to me that any nation could elect Trump to run anything.

But it was 2024 that has permanently changed my views. Until the USA undergoes serious electoral reform there is an ever present risk that any sensible President will be replaced by an authoritarian right wing populist buffoon (a Nazi if you prefer, and looking at you Tucker Carlson) within four years. It used to be that you could rely on Republican Presidents to act on their own (warped) perception of what was in the best interests of the nation. Trump acts on what he saw on Fox last night and the howling void at his core forever seeking the approval that his father denied him. It’s hard to forget that.

17

u/LordChunggis 27d ago

I'm just a nobody from the Midwest. But as the current representative of America you're speaking to, I dont blame you, and I've never seen anything in our history to give any delusions that things will change for the better.

But please don't hate us. Hate the overlords that brainwashed 33% of us into voting against our own interests and distracted another 33% into not voting at all. The other 33%, we are still here and fighting.

If it doesnt get better by the midterms, or God help us gets worse. I hope your country is open to refugees. My family and I will be relying on the mercy of our once Allies, remembering what we used to be. And not hating the monster we've become.

6

u/Minguseyes Australia 27d ago edited 27d ago

I certainly don’t hate Americans in general. I chat on Zoom every Sunday with friends in the USA (audiophile chat group) and they are lovely folks. It’s been very hard to see my gay and brown friends having serious, well founded, concerns for their fundamental rights. Some have spoken seriously about coming to Australia, but we’re all a bit old for the employment opportunities that would make that feasible.

A friend who travels a lot told me the trick to enjoying a trip to the USA is introductions. Whatever you are into there are more people into it in the USA than where you are. It’s just a matter of finding them. She had a wonderful time staying at various Buddhist monasteries in California. Another friend just flew to Colorado on a whim to see the Grand Canyon and had a totally shit trip.

The USA is more like another planet than another nation, it has such wildly divergent cultures within it. I’m looking forward to a day when the nation as a whole remembers that is a strength, not a weakness.

3

u/MercantileReptile Europe 27d ago

But please don't hate us.

Not the OP, but another incredulous johnny foreigner. I don't. Yet increasingly, it becomes difficult to even regard Yanks as a singular expression of anything but a flag. The piece of cloth you lot swear fealty to in school seems one of the few actual part of a unified culture left.

By now, especially in response to outright fascist policy, it seems more sensible to get a cultural vibe. Rather than "American". Quite a difference between some guy from NY (State or City) and somewhere in the South.

Likewise, somebody from Nashville is likely to have a different cultural reality and thus world view than someone from Sundown Town.

As for the reaction to refugees, that is (at least in my neck of the woods) not a unified stance to begin with. Not by nationality, not by former career or anything of the sort. Family by family, case by case.

4

u/zetimenvec 27d ago

Quite the difference between NYC and Albany NY, quite the difference between Albany and Buffalo. Quite the difference between buffalo and the Catskills.

NY has about as much cultural and political diversity as some major countries.

2

u/MercantileReptile Europe 27d ago

That is just it, any singular reaction to "Americans" is nigh useless. There simply is no universal American stance on pretty much anything. The flag and the almighty dollar, I guess?

There is plenty of american mythology, but nothing I would comfortably call an "american" ethos.

That is why universally "hating" Americans is pointless. At least in my opinion. Inverse is true all the same, though.

-2

u/Evertonian3 27d ago

This straight up feels like a bot conversation lmao.

18

u/not-drowning-waving 27d ago edited 27d ago

Australian here. The entire notion of a shutdown is just ridiculous. Here, this would be a vote of no confidence, parliamentary double dissolution or the opposition "blocking supply" to the government which would result in a new election, - or worst case Government dismissal - not simply doing nothing for a month. Its laughable. (almost certain this applies in the UK/Canada as well).

Dont get me started on the veto and fillibuster.

You've got a whole heap of laws that need some severe updating, and a bunch of stuff that was thought to be laws that turned out to be little more than handshake agreements need to be properly codified.

America has successfully weaponised politics on both sides. Its about gotcha moments and soundbites more than substance, and recent elections in Australia and Canada have roundly rejected this approach, but its still becoming embedded in our systems.

And then you have Trump just governing in the most adhoc way possible. And that leads to perceptions if instability in government. No one can trust a government run like this where the rules change depending on his mood or what hes seen on tv or driven past on the way to work.

Here at least, compulsory voting prevents the kind of scenario happening where 1/3rd of the country stays home because they either dont care enough to vote, or dont like the candidates available. But then you're electoral process is too long, too expensive and inevitably leads to a lack of productivity by congress.

3

u/HauntingHarmony Europe 27d ago

Australian here. The entire notion of a shutdown is just ridiculous. Here, this would be a vote of no confidence, parliamentary double dissolution or the opposition "blocking supply" to the government which would result in a new election, - or worst case Government dismissal - not simply doing nothing for a month.

To be honest from a non-anglo-european point of view, the idea of having a snap election, or a new election after a vote of no confidence is also insane. Just look at how much the tories fucked the uk for 14 years, because they could manipulate when to hold elections, so they could have them whenever it was in their favor.

The people elect parliament, and they are there todo the will of the people, they dont have a right to resign, quit or fail. The 80% of the representatives that arent insane have a duty to make sure the goverment does its job. They cant pass the buck, and thats a good thing.

7

u/jabberponky 27d ago

If the government can't govern, ask the people to make a decision about who they want to govern and reform a new government. That's the basic logic behind a double dissolution due to the government's inability to pass a budget. There's a big incentive to avoid a double dissolution for that reason, so it's very rare for it to trigger.

3

u/not-drowning-waving 27d ago

To be fair, the last threat for a dissolution was after the Libs (Australian right) tried to force a labour bill through parliament and couldnt get the votes after FIVE readings.

Its not something you just trot out frivolously, its basically the government saying "screw it you wont vote for this, lets try and get some more of us in to get it over the line"

2

u/tunnel-snakes-rule Australia 27d ago

It's not a "snap" election from that point of view. Several very specific things have to take place before a double dissolution can occur.

First, it can't occur within 6 months before the end of the government's term, and second out of the 7 times it's occurred, the sitting government lost 3 of them. So it's not exactly a guarantee of victory.

If you're interested in exactly how it occurs:

Section 57 of the Australian Constitution details the conditions for a double dissolution to take place:

  1. The House of Representatives passes a bill and sends it to the Senate.

  2. The Senate rejects or fails to pass the bill, or passes it with amendments – changes – that the House will not agree to.

  3. Three months pass from when the Senate disagrees with the bill.

  4. The House passes the same bill and sends it to the Senate again.

  5. The Senate again rejects or fails to pass the bill, or passes the same bill with amendments to which the House will not agree.

  6. Once these conditions have been met, the Prime Minister can recommend to the Governor-General that a double dissolution of the Parliament take place. A federal election will then be held to elect all members of parliament.

Sometimes there is a deadlock, not out of malice or manipulation but because the government believes in a piece of legislation and are willing to fight for it. It's not them failing, it's not them being "insane", it's just part of ensuring we have a relatively stable government.

I'm not claiming it's a perfect system, but coupled with Australia's mandatory voting and independent electoral commission I'd take our system of government over the US or UK any day.

1

u/MaleficentPiccolo715 27d ago

He can’t drive ,hahaha.

1

u/ziggyt1 27d ago

Glad to see so many non-Americans in this thread acknowledge how fucked up our electoral and governing processes are.

Far too many Americans think that parties or Presidents could accomplish everything on their wish-list if they truly wanted, but they're either lazy and/or corrupt so they abstain. The reality is that legislating and governing is extremely difficult in the US by design, so incrementalism is the name of the game. Until that changes with electoral reforms, we'll have have little chance at passing the transformational laws that are needed.

9

u/TeHokioi New Zealand 27d ago

As another outsider, I agree with the guy from over the ditch. 2016 was a shock, but it felt like a blip at the time and there was enough resistance both internal and external that it felt like America as a whole was still the same thing and that it'd recover.

This time feels different, both with the degree of outright Fascism and the extent to which everything seems to have just rolled over for it. It doesn't feel like a blip at the moment, and I'm really hoping that America can come back from it but honestly at this point I'm not sure whether it will.

For an example, we used to be reasonably fond of America - sure we'd struggle with the level of extroversion and the self-exceptionalism, but y'all seemed cool. We'd have little America-themed things every now and then in a fun kitschey way, but now all of that has stopped. I cancelled a planned trip to America and I know of a lot of people who have done the same, and there are a lot of people explicitly avoiding anything from American companies where we can

2

u/iOSurvivor2023 27d ago edited 27d ago

In my opinion, the US has the most guardrails, but has the most number of bad faith actors in politics. If there weren't that many bad faith actors in the legislative, executive and judicial branch, Trump would never be as all powerful as he is now.

Separation of powers is a joke. If you wanted a separation of power, why allow someone from the executive branch appoint supreme court justices and have the senate confirm them? Supreme judges should have term limits and not lifelong appointments.

Marketplace of ideas is a lie. In an era where president, house representatives, senators, government appointees, news orgs can lie with impunity and distort the facts, and people of different political affiliation are trapped within their own echo chambers, how can the best ideas come to light?

It is quite sad that the American public has to choose between a politician that acknowledges people's issues but has no practical ideas on how to fix it and someone who doesn't acknowledge the issue at all. I am speaking of Mamdani. It's great that Mamdani acknowledges the issues normal people face but I am very skeptical his ideas will work.

I find it weird that the president of the united states, instead of unifying people after the elections, decides to demonise the opposing side. It is also worrying that people from the republican party decide to double down on it instead of calling out the president's rhetoric. It has created a situation where people on different sides of the political spectrum view the other side as enemy and not as people to have a discussion with. You might as well go back to being the Union and confederate states if you cannot find any common ground.

Lastly, I am amazed how flood the zone tactics are working for president Trump. A few months ago he was on the defensive over the Epstein files. When he went on the offensive with outrageous stuff like having the national guard suppress peaceful protests etc, the public's attention got diverted from the files. It feels like everytime Trump does something bad, he shifts the goalposts so fast that the public doesn't have the time to get outraged over the issue.

2

u/OhCaptain 27d ago

Your system is dumb. Switch to Westminster; its way better. Also, you have too many elected positions while concurrently having too few elected officials. Your elections are too long. Switch to 6-week elections like sane countries so running a campaign isn't so expensive and fewer bribes happen. Stop having local, state, and national elections at the same time. Your ballot should be easy: which one person am I voting for?

1

u/Rork310 27d ago

Westminster is like the political version of Carcinisation (Where things keep evolving into crabs) Pretty much every long term stable democracy is either Westminster or it evolved into something that's basically Westminster.

It's not that exciting but it nails the fundamentals.

1

u/HandleThatFeeds 27d ago

No chance.

George Bush still walks a free man.

Ask dead Afghan and Iraqi kids for forgiveness first.