We're NOT Doomed: April 22, 2025
WE have the power!
It seems like it’s time to talk about the job of minority leader again. I swear I just did this, but oh well, more info is better than less.
It’s herding cats. The job can be simplified down to “herding cats.”
Dems do not all have the same values or the same way of governing by those values. This is sometimes because we are a big tent with many disparate points of views and sometimes because their district, or state is purple, or even red, and we need to make sure a Dem keeps the seat. And Sometimes it’s a combination of both.
That means there is no other member that could convince some members to vote a certain way. You, as their constituent have more power. You can contact their office, and protest in their district and make noise on social media. Their vote is based on their assumptions about their district, so CHANGE THEM.
Everyone talks about Nancy Pelosi. But you have to remember, that was when she was SPEAKER, not minority leader.
She didn’t bring anything to the House floor until she had the votes to pass it. That’s not what Leaders Jeffries and Schumer aren’t doing.
They don’t get a choice when something comes to the House or Senate floor. That is up to Thune and Johnson.
So we’re not always gonna have the votes because Dems have absolutely no say of when something gets voted on.
Dems might not even KNOW until an hour before the vote, or sometimes less.
I can’t overstate this.
Schumer and Jeffries and whips Senator Dick Durbin and Rep Katherine Clark whip as best they can given these facts, but they aren’t magical superheros. If a member doesn’t want to vote with the Dems, they’re not gonna vote with the Dems.
It doesn’t matter is Schumer turns himself into a pretzel, that fact isn’t gonna change.
He is not responsible for that person not voting with us. He can’t be. For the aforementioned reason above that he is not a superhero.
But that doesn’t make him BAD at whipping.
In fact, the best example I can give is the one most of you blamed him for the most: the Government Shutdown.
Those 7 members wanted to give in THE WEEK the Shutdown started. Some of them would have caved that first day.
Through painstaking negotiation over and over again, Schumer was able to hold them off till after the November election.
That was NOT easy. These cats did not want to be herded. But because of his efforts, we won BIG in the off year general election.
Could another leader have done the same thing? Maybe. Could the most progressive member of the Senate have? I don’t know.
There’s a fine line between herding effectively and alienating. Blue dogs and progressives all have Democratic values but don’t agree on how they need to be implemented.
Not to mention, this wasn’t even about how big the tent is, but rather how much of a given district is military and government employees. There was nothing Schumer could say that would convince these members that their constituents could go another week, two weeks, month etc., without being paid. Period.
I don’t think that would have been different with leader Murphy or Murray or Van Hollen. The facts wouldn’t magically change.
The job of the leader makes them unpopular by design. You are not popular with the cats you are herding. And you’re certainly not popular with the owners, when you have to explain that you tried your best but their cat still wandered off.
But that’s the job.
I’m not saying this is always the case. There are a few times that the House Democratic Caucus chooses not to whip that they might have some success if they had. Same goes for the Senate. And of course Schumer’s own votes are his own choice, so yeah, the Israel weapons vote was incredibly disappointing.
But stop thinking that other members have no agency. The best minority leader in the world can’t necessarily keep their minority caucus together.
We don’t know what Speaker Jeffries is like, but we DO know that Majority Leader Schumer managed to pass the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Sciences Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act with the slimmest of majorities.
That said, Chuck Schumer has been in this position since 2017 and it’s time for him to step down in January. No one wants the job right now, just listen to Senator Whitehouse laugh when you ask him if he does. But it’s time.
Not some secret vote that’s going to divide the caucus the next time he fails to be a magician, but rather, convincing him that it’s time to give someone else a shot.
The thing is, you don’t vote. So, you might not like the next person who wants the job. Just saying.
Indiana
Mon, Feb 9 - Yes this is an old story, but I think it deserves some attention. Indiana is thought of as one of the reddest states in the nation, so when we have a party win like this, I can’t let it go unmentioned.
There is at least one Dem running in ALL 25 State Senate seats up for election, AND 91 out of 100 State House seats are contested as well!
This is HUGE for a state like Indiana which has a total of 40 Democrats in a 150 seats of the House and Senate.
And all Senate seats have not been contested by Dems since 1974 and this many House seats since 1992 when there were different rules.
Indiana Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yode celebrated saying:
Hoosiers are fired up and fed up with the endless partisanship and self-serving priorities of the Republican Braun supermajority at the Statehouse. Families are doing everything right, yet the cost of living keeps climbing—and too often this supermajority chooses headlines over help. That’s why a record number of Democratic candidates are stepping forward to serve their communities at this truly critical time for our state and country. They’re ready to get to work to make Indiana more affordable: lowering childcare costs, protecting working families’ budgets, and investing in the future of our communities so people can not just get by, but get ahead.
The IN midterm primary is coming up on May 5 and you might even have two Dems to chose from, not to mention non partisan races matter a whole lot too, so please do some research and remember to vote.
This is becoming more and more frequent. Republican controlled states are not a lost cause and the Indiana Democratic Party made this happen! This is why it’s so important to support and nurture your state party, cause things like this ARE possible. And that makes me feel less Doomed!
Virginia
Mon, April 6 - I could post a win out of Virginia every single day if I wanted to. This is what happens when a Dem becomes governor, after four years of a disastrous MAGA Republican. Governor Spanberger signed a bill into law that will stop the state from issuing Robert E. Lee specialty license plates. The law will go into affect on July 1. Though current license plates will still be valid, unfortunately.
Delegate Dan Helmer, one of the bill’s authors, posted:
The Confederacy was a four year period in which traitors hellbent on preserving slavery tried - and then failed - to divide the Union. The Confederacy and its leaders do not deserve our commemoration, and its adherents certainly do not deserve taxpayer dollars.
This is such a wonderful win. It’s not flashy and it’s not life altering, it’s just quietly standing up for progressive values. And among all the massive wins, especially in Virginia right now, these smaller ones are worth celebrating too.
Boulder City, Nevada
Wed, April 8 - Thanks to a whole lot of angry noise, Townsite Solar 2 have postponed their application to create a data center in Bolder City.
What was supposed to be discussed at the April 15 planning board meeting has now been postponed till the May 20th one.
Three days before this decision was announced, John L. Smith wrote an opinion for The Nevada Independent convinced that the push back had come too late.
But it looks like he was wrong. There was a change.org petition started on March 26 by resident Brynn deLorimier. It had almost 1k signers within two, and now it has over 4000. Half of those signing since April 8.
To put this into perspective, there are only 15,000 residents of Boulder City. So that is almost 1/4 of the entire community that is taking active steps against this.
As Smith said in his article:
The plan, preliminary or otherwise, is proceeding despite growing pushback. The Townsite Solar 2 project is on the agenda for an upcoming city planning commission meeting. It is scheduled to break ground later this year, according to published reports, and could be ready for business as early as 2027.
They were fast tracking this, and at the very least, the pushback from both this petition and in person protesting has pushed the entire thing back a month.
Also, worth noting that this data center will be on the ballot in November. It will be “Question 1” for all of Eldorado Valley. I’m not sure what would happen if they fast track it and voters say no, which I certainly expect them to, but hopefully the pressure keeps building and we don’t have to find out.
This delay may feel small, but it’s not. It shows our power. ESPECIALLY if you live in a small town.
And, like everything else I post about, that makes me feel less Doomed!
We have the power. Every single time. We have the power to vote, we have the power to run and we have the power to fight back. Never forget that!
OUR voices are our superpower, but ONLY when we use them!