Facebook
X
LinkdIn
Copy Link
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s failed fiscal gambit last week proved as obvious as it was predictable. Yet Schumer’s flub has had an outsized impact in prompting open conversation among Democrats about whether they need to move on from the New York Senator. The leftist activist group Indivisible called for Schumer to step down, saying he needs to be replaced with “a Minority Leader who’s up for the fight this moment demands.” Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania went on Bill Maher Friday to criticize Schumer’s misuse of legislative leverage. And prominent party voice MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend announced she was quitting the Democratic Party live on air.
This consternation arrives at the same time Democrats are experiencing historic new lows in party favorability. Dual polls out this weekend from NBC News and CNN showed the dire state of affairs:
Just over a quarter of registered voters (27%) say they have positive views of the party, which is the party’s lowest positive rating in NBC News polling dating back to 1990. Just 7% say those views are “very” positive.
Among the American public overall, the Democratic Party’s favorability rating stands at just 29% – a record low in CNN’s polling dating back to 1992 and a drop of 20 points since January 2021, when Trump exited his first term under the shadow of the January 6 attack at on Capitol.
These look bad, and they look even worse when you realize the polls were taken entirely before Schumer’s heel turn along with other Democrats to prevent a government shutdown – a move unlikely to play well with Democrat voters who already thought the problem was not fighting Trump hard enough. John Hickenlooper, the Democratic Senator from Colorado, summarized the mood around the shutdown choice as “full of despair.” He might be speaking for the majority of his party now.
For Republicans to maximize this opportunity, though, they’re going to need to resist the temptation to slow down. It’s a limited window to stick to their ambitious agenda in a crowded field of threats and risk. They can’t afford to assume that the other side maintains this degree of disarray as the midterms approach. Cracks always emerge in coalitions as events intervene. No Republican should ever underestimate the ability of their party to screw up in a key moment when they should press the advantage. That’s one reason why getting it right in this moment is so critical. You have to move fast when the wind is at your back, before it inevitably shifts again.
Leave a Reply