Right now Talking Points Memo has Coons, Kaine, Kim, Markey, Murray, Sanders, Slotkin, and Warren against the spending resolution (“continuing resolution” being a misnomer), Fetterman for it (vile stuff), and the rest of the Senate Democrats… have no public position. What would it mean for them to let it pass without filibustering it?
It will mean that, complain as they might, Democrats fundamentally find acceptable the fascist Trump/Musk/”DOGE” sabotage of the federal administration: the unconstitutional impoundment of congressionally-appropriated funds, the illegal mass firings, the forfeit of federal buildings, all of it. Because if they found it unacceptable, Senate Democrats would show that by stopping it, using the official power that they have.
On top of that, it will mean that the Senate Democratic leadership from Sen. Schumer on down and the Democratic majority that continues to choose them as their leaders are actively taking up the space that party leadership worthy of the name should be in. Just sitting there, blocking actual patriotic leadership. Apparently they—and their top-dollar funders—want it like this. (I mean, can’t be letting people get ideas, y’know!)
Senate Democrats might claim that they can’t let the government shut down because of the harm that would ensue. But letting the spending resolution pass locks in harm to date, empowers far worse harm ahead, and would be flat-out appeasement. Giving ground like that would only be justifiable if it was building toward a later confrontation in which Democrats would have more leverage. There’s no claim of any such thing, and the mid-term elections in November 2026 will be far too late. The time to stage a confrontation is now, while the shock of the Trump regime is still raw and while he hasn’t fully consolidated power. Senate Democrats must demand that Musk and the DOGE usurpers be banished from federal government and all of the cuts and theft be undone before they agree to any spending.
What do we have instead? It’s hard to escape the impression in this fight that Democratic leadership is just letting this happen, or worse, holding us down, as the fascist Republicans tear us apart.
Meanwhile, your pressure on Democrats is having a real effect. See this 10 minute video segment on The Majority Report With Sam Seder, along with the Politico report that it’s based on:
Democrats of all persuasions, even some centrists who have long been firmly anti-shutdown, feel that voting for a “clean” spending bill would be tacitly blessing Musk’s controversial work. Denying Republicans the votes they’ll need to keep the agencies open, they believe, would be the lesser evil.
“Nobody wants a shutdown, but they don’t feel like aiding and abetting what’s happening, with Musk and Trump taking a wrecking ball to health care in particular,” said one senior House Democratic aide, who like others I spoke to was granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal party conversations. “Why would we be complicit in that?”
[...] That’s a big pivot from just a few weeks ago. In early February, I pooh-poohed the left’s push to use the March 14 government funding deadline to make a stand against Musk — and then heard from a number of senior Democratic officials on both sides of the Capitol who privately agreed with my assessment.
A Democrat-induced shutdown, they agreed, would backfire on their party politically and only empower Musk even more to slash and burn his way through federal agencies. And they were frustrated with the base for not seeming to understand that playing with fire wasn’t the answer.
Now, with the funding deadline less than two weeks away?
“People now feel like the more perilous position is giving votes without the perception there’s been any change in accountability,” a second senior House Democratic aide told me. “The incentive structure right now is not to provide votes for them.”
You did that.You changed the political calculus and made the House Democrats oppose the spending resolution as a bloc.
Call your senators’ offices now—right now!—and demand that they stop this surrender.
(Aside: The above should end for all time the “rox/sux” argument on this forum. The “rox” folks would have us believe that to publicly and vociferously criticize Democrats only suppresses voter turnout in the next election and makes us lose. Here we are provably moving Democrats both to do the right thing morally and what’s in their and our electoral interests, in the direction of saving the country from full fascist domination [and the world from environmental doom].
Sure hope we succeed. No biggie!)