Three Wins Today: Nov 12, 2025

I have faith in your attention span and your acceptance of nuance

This is going to be very nuanced and very divisive. I hope you will do me the courtesy of reading the whole thing and digesting it before commenting.

Okay?

Good, here goes:

I think many people in our party misunderstand what a congressional leader is.

A House Dem or Senate Dem leader must be able to have as much influence in a room of Progressives as a room of Blue Dogs.

They must be able to understand all points of view, to best shape how to bring them all together, to make sure something can actually pass.

I just watched Lawrence O’Donnell’s segment on Chuck Schumer, and while, I think, because of his years working in the Senate, he’s a bit precious with it, I also think he made some really good points.

The leader is not supposed to be the most popular person in the party, that’s not the point. They are the person who has the best shot of persuading the most people, and they surround themselves with those that can do the same.

Keep in mind, the best shot doesn’t mean they can do it flawlessly, in fact, as O’Donnell said in last night’s episode, there has never been a Democratic Senate leader who kept the party together 100% of the time.

Think of your choice to take Schumer’s place. Do you think they could work with the Blue Dogs as effectively as with the Progressives? I’m not saying I think Schumer should stay leader, but I don’t know who would take his place. I don’t know who has the most impact in the LBJ room.

Not to mention, right now, in the middle of this fight, and we are in the middle of it, there will be a vote on the ACA in December and we have until then to work our asses off to make Republicans as utterly unpopular as possible. Making someone else learn the ropes on the job, at a time when we need all hands on deck, might not be the right move.

But let’s say it is, let’s say it would help. Who? I don’t know, but I do know it’s not necessarily the person who is best at social media. And I do know that no matter who it is, they’re gonna have to make hard choices that you will not like, and before long, people will be calling for their resignation.

Cause it’s not simple. It might look easy from the outside, but listen to any Democratic Senator, it’s one of the hardest job in government, in their opinion. The Democratic Party is a massive tent, and that’s no different in the Senate itself. Somehow leadership has gotten most of them to vote the same way most of the time.

Could someone have done better than Schumer at keeping the Dems 100% in line for the last month? Remember, 5 of these people (and another 5 who we don’t know), started negotiating day 1. Schumer successfully kept them from doing anything about it till AFTER the election. Would Leader Warren, Klobuchar, Murphy or Booker have been able to keep them in longer?

I don’t know. Maybe so. Maybe they could have said something to change the minds of these eight. But, if they could have, wouldn’t they have? Sitting in the LBJ room, wouldn’t they have been able to do it even without the title of leader?

And the thing is, I don’t actually think Schumer should have been leader this term to begin with. I think that, when you lose seats, that probably means it’s time for someone else to take the reigns. I don’t think social media is the most important aspect of the job, but it’s not the least either, and he’s not great at getting people outside the Senate to understand his reasoning or even trust that he has any at all. That’s not a small thing.

But I also don’t think this ultimatum of “kick him out or else” is helpful. Because we don’t know what is happening behind closed doors. We don’t know who is fighting the hardest in that room. We don’t know when it almost comes to blows.

We only know who makes US feel good, US feel seen and US feel heard. But that’s only a fraction of what the job of the Senate leader is, and a very new part of their job description at that.

So it’s not at all about who OUR ideal leader is. This isn’t President, this isn’t a position elected by American citizens, this is a person who has been around long enough to know the ropes AND how to mediate between Senators and acknowledge their needs individually.

So, if the Senate Dems decide, as it seems they’re going to, that they aren’t willing to replace Schumer right now, acknowledge that maybe they have a reason for that, maybe it’s as simple as no one else wants the job.

But if that does change, which I do hope it does for the 120th Congress, when you’re theorizing who would replace Schumer, think of who can actually do the best job, not just who would make you happiest to see with Leader before their name. And, when whoever it is make that first decision you don’t like, don’t start screaming “resign!” “step down!” Remember how, when there are 47 different people with 47 different opinions, the only way to make anything happen is some form of compromise.

The opposite of that compromise is right where the Republican party is now, a cult. We’re proud that we’re not a cult, but that means you’re not gonna like every decision.

Now, hopefully you still want to know what my wins are. So enjoy your reward for reading that literal essay.

From: Getty Images

Nationwide

Fri, Oct 31 - What started as an preliminary injunction in April, is now a permanent ruling. Clinton Appointee, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotely has ruled that the portion of the voting executive order that requires a passport or equivalent for of ID to vote is permanently blocked.

She agreed with the plaintiffs that it would cause irreparable harm:

Both the Nonpartisan Plaintiffs and the Democratic Party Plaintiffs have shown that in the absence of an injunction against the implementation of Section 2(a), they would suffer irreparable harm to their interests. As the Court concluded at the preliminary injunction stage, these threatened harms are “both certain and great,” not merely “theoretical,” and sufficiently “imminen[t]” to demonstrate a “clear and present need” for equitable relief.

The plaintiffs released a statement following the ruling:

The court’s ruling confirms what we have long argued: the President may not rewrite election law to impose a burdensome show-your-papers rule that would shut out countless Americans from the ballot box. This executive order was an attempted overreach of power, bypassing the Constitution’s clear allocation of authority to Congress and the states to set election rules. Our democracy is strongest when every eligible voter can register and vote free from expensive and unnecessary requirements.

This is a really important win for a whole host of reasons, but most important to my work, the courts are still working. They might not be working as well as we’d like, but they are still working.

And voting still matters. In fact, the harder they try to make it the more it matters. Don’t think for a second that there is any excuse to sit out your next election (if you’re in Louisiana, that might be on Saturday.) This is a right Republicans are working so hard to take away, so we must use it to the fullest extent that we can.

Maldives

Sat, Nov 1 - Back in May, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu signed an amendment to the Tobacco Control Act into law. This amendment says that no one born, in the Maldives, after January 1, 2007 can ever purchase tobacco products. It also says that e-cigarettes and any advertisement for tobacco products are banned, and machinery can’t be used to produce or sell tobacco products going forward.

The law officially went into effect at the beginning of November.

This decision came after a 2022 study that found that 12.8% of deaths in the country were caused by tobacco consumption.

It must be great to live in a country that sees something causing people harm and does something to mitigate it.

Los Angeles

Thu, Nov 6 - Carol Burnett has created a scholarship at UCLA, her alma mater for the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television.

Burnett said:

I am so pleased that, with this endowment of the Carol Burnett Scholarship to the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, students will be given an opportunity akin to what UCLA gave me when I enrolled fresh out of high school. I found my true passion at UCLA, and in this scholarship lies the hope that it will do the same for many others for many years to come

I’m including this because, well one, I love Carol Burnett, but also it’s UCLA, one of the schools that refuses to cave and anything that helps another person get into the arts matters. One of the biggest parts of a dictatorship is crushing creativity and imagination, so creating and nurturing artists is fighting back against this administration.

Burnett may not be loudly political, but this is a statement nonetheless.

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So those are today’s wins, and a literal essay, sorry about that, I didn’t think I would be able to say what I wanted to in less words. Funny how in middle and high school and even college a 1k word essay felt so overwhelming. Meanwhile, the first draft of this took me approximately 10 minutes. Go figure.

Anyway, our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!