U.S. President Donald Trump looks up as he participates in a roundtable on antifa, an anti-fascist movement he designated a domestic "terrorist organization" via executive order on September 22, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Yesterday from the Associated Press: “On Sunday, a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who say Americans want them to continue the fight.”

My thoughts:

  1. Eight Democrats betrayed the Democratic Party over the weekend in deciding to vote with the Republicans to reopen the government – eight Democrats in the US Senate under Chuck Schumer’s leadership. None of the House Democrats cracked while under Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership. They stood firm.
  1. The Democrats failed to stand by their word. In the beginning, they said they refused to keep the government open until the regime faced the reality of health insurance premiums for 24 million Americans doubling, tripling or quadrupling, without immediate action. They said negotiate first, then vote to reopen the government. Turns out eight of them didn’t really mean it.
  1. The Democrats traded their power for an IOU. Their power was the filibuster. The IOU is a vote on Obamacare subsidies. Not a promise to renew them, just a promise to hold a vote – in January! There’s nothing saying Senate Majority Leader John Thune will honor the IOU. If he does, the vote will be subject to the filibuster. If the GOP is united, guess what? More than 40 days of government shutdown will have been for nothing.
  1. The Democrats sabotaged public trust. They had earned enormous good will among Democratic voters as well as Americans generally. Poll after poll suggested that most of the blame for the shutdown was on Donald Trump and the Republicans in the Congress. Last week’s off-year elections suggested a new perspective was emerging – that the shutdown was a legitimate form of resistance against illegitimate rule. Pressure was mounting. Food stamps weren’t going out. Flights were being cancelled. House Republicans were sweating. Trump was calling for the end of the filibuster. Then Schumer caved.
  1. Eight Democratic traitors are covering for Chuck Schumer. Yes, yes. Schumer voted against reopening the government, but think about it. What caused his heel-turn? It wasn’t the cost of health insurance. It wasn’t food stamps. It wasn’t federal workers getting fired. He would have pushed for reopening the government weeks ago if that were the case. No, it was the effect of the shutdown on the airlines and businesses that rely on them. More than 10,000 flights were delayed on Sunday. I would guess that someone high up the food chain said Trump can’t be reasoned with, so it’s up to you, Chuck! Their interests trumped those of scores of millions of struggling Americans.
  1. The Democrats protected the Republicans. Not only did the Democrats squander public faith by caving (again), they ended up protecting the Republicans from the wrath of their own supporters. Trump is hurting them. GOP voters were waking up to that fact. Now, in the aftermath of surrender, the Democrats have lent credence to the GOP claim that they won the fight to reopen the government to relieve the pain caused by the Democrats. GOP voters often make choices that turn them into hostages. Admittedly, there wasn’t a lot of reason for them to reconsider that behavior, but now there’s none at all. Trump was walking the path toward self-immolation. The filibuster was finally in contention. Nine Democrats saved him from himself.
  1. The Democrats encouraged Trump’s crime spree. Weakness in the face of lawlessness does not appease it. It endorses it. That’s what these eight Democrats, plus Schumer, have done. Trump was already hurting people to avoid compromise and force the Democrats into submission. Now he knows what works. It’s not the suffering of workaday Americans. It’s the “suffering” of airline passengers whose plans were interpreted and the elites who profit from them. Next time the Democrats get in his way, Trump can ground every plane and expect the same result.
  1. The Democrats beclowned themselves. This morning, a day after caving, Dick Durbin said in a column for MSNBC that he’s going to do everything he can to hold the president accountable for the criminal actions of ICE agents in Chicago and Illinois. Why would anyone believe that when Durbin is one of the eight, plus Schumer, who stopped fighting before the fight was over. Same thing with New Hampshire’s Jeane Shaheen. This morning, the senator said: "I think we can get a bipartisan bill out of the Senate that will address this [healthcare] issue. And if not, we know that the voters are going to know who's on their side and who's going to hold them accountable." Who is she kidding!
  1. Chris Murphy is right. "There will be pretty substantial damage to a Democratic brand that has been rehabilitated if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop. … If we surrender without having gotten anything, I worry it'll be hard to get them back up off the mat."
  1. Greg Sargent is right. “Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Democrats are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans."
  1. Hakeem Jeffries is right. “We can’t let a handful of random senators take us off track as it relates to the fight that we’re waging to lower the high cost of living, to fix our broken health care system and to clean up corruption,” he told Aaron Parnas.
  1. Hakeem Jeffries is wrong. Should Schumer leave? No, he said. Unacceptable. Weakness welcomes contempt. Contempt is going to be felt by all the Democrats, not only “a handful of random senators” who blinked in the face of lawlessness and cruelty. Democratic leaders must get their house in order. There should be no tolerance for sabotage. Why would anyone trust a Democrat to stand by his or her word when nine of them are allowed to undermine the credibility of the entire party?
  1. Are the Democrats going to fix the problem? They say they want to stop health insurance premiums from skyrocketing. At this point, why believe them? They’re willing to fight but only if the consequences of fighting reach normal people, like 42 million who depend on food stamps or 24 million who depend on Obamacare. But if the elites are merely inconvenienced, forget it. It’s back to business as usual – a betrayal of everything they said they believe in. Some even convince themselves that fighting a cruel and lawless president is a bad thing: “Standing up to Donald Trump didn't work,” Angus King actually said.