By any standard, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – ostensibly one of the more savvy of American politicians – lost big time in the just concluded fight over shutting down the federal government. The Republicans were able to demonize the Democrats’ tactic of refusing to sign off on a bill to fund the government unless Republicans agreed to their demands for legal protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, the so-called Dreamers.
The Republicans successfully argued that the Democrats’ approach – driven by the hard left, progressive wing of the Democratic Party – held the entire nation hostage to the interests of a relative handful of people who aren’t even American citizens. Virtually hat in hand, Democrats, led by Sen. Schumer, voted for a spending bill ending the crisis based on a vague promise that in a few weeks the Republican majorities in the Senate and House would allow the issue of the deportation of the Dreamers to be debated – but with no guarantee of any legislative outcome.
The tactic was ill advised and Mr. Schumer was finally forced to capitulate in order to protect the electoral chances in November of Democratic congressional candidates in states that voted for President Trump in 2016. Even so, some pundits are speculating that the Democrats may have blown an opportunity to take over the Senate and/or the House.
But this is not the first time Sen. Schumer has been led astray by the Democratic left. It is no secret that from the onset of his becoming minority leader at the tail end of the Obama administration, New York’s senior senator has had to deal with his party’s increasingly powerful hard left element. The unexpected success of Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primaries remains a striking barometer of the phenomenon.
As a general proposition, Sen. Schumer has also bought into the premise and tactics of the “Resistance,” which seeks to delegitimize almost anything President Trump proposes or seeks to accomplish.
To be sure, there were indications that early on Mr. Schumer was somewhat reluctant to go all in and harbored notions of actually mounting a principled opposition to a Republican president and Congress. Yet he soon did go all in and made a mockery of the American tradition of respecting the results of an election until the opportunity arises in the next election to “throw the bums out.”
And there are a number of issues of particular concern to our community on which he has thrown in his lot with the Democratic left and bailed on us. He backed the notoriously anti-Israel Congressman Keith Ellison for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee and more recently publicly celebrated the reelection of anti-Israel New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca.
Mr. Ellison has been a relentless critic of Israel and a vocal proponent of the Palestinian narrative. He has opposed U.S. funding for Iron Dome and has been a defender of the Nation of Islam’s Rev. Louis Farrakhan and the BDS movement. He also led an ultimately unsuccessful effort to insert an anti-Israel plank in the 2016 Democratic Party platform.
Revealingly, Mr. Ellison was the darling of the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party and Sen. Schumer has even acknowledged that he supported Mr. Ellison due to Sen. Sander’s importuning.
As for Mr. Menchaca, who represents part of Boro Park in the City Council, he has made common cause with the rabidly anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, going out of his way to express his solidarity with her. It will be recalled that in several infamous Twitter posts Ms. Sarsour applauded Palestinian children for throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. (Mr. Menchaca insists he does not support violence.)
Mr. Menchaca was one of three councilmembers who voted against a Council resolution condemning the BDS movement. It is also worthy of note that in 2014 Ms. Sarsour was the master of ceremonies at Mr. Menchaca’s first swearing-in. And earlier this month, at his second swearing-in, none other than Sen. Schumer gave the major address.
We would hope the Dreamers fiasco will prod Mr. Schumer to reconsider whether the goals of the hard left are really compatible with his own.