Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) Nails It: “Allowing this CR to proceed puts a Democratic Party stamp on it. It demonstrates weakness when the American people need strength.”

With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer apparently throwing in the towel on any effort to stop the House GOP’s/Trump’s horrendous “CR” (in quotes, because it’s not a clean CR), Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) really nails it.

“The President is driving our economy into the ground, damaging our international relationships, breaking the government, and exposing Americans to danger. He owns that. Allowing this CR to proceed puts a Democratic party stamp on it. It demonstrates weakness when the American people need strength. It hurts veterans, law enforcement, and average Americans. All Democrats should vote against this partisan bill because that’s right for the American people. Fear of what the President may do in a shutdown cannot override the reality of the harm he’s doing now. I urge all Senate Democrats to gird yourselves. Vote against cloture.”

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leadership weighed in, correctly arguing that “The far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans, giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk even more power to continue dismantling the federal government,” adding “House Democrats will not be complicit. We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.”

So the big question is, what on earth is Chuck Schumer thinking? On the Senate Dems website, he argues, correctly, that “in two months, has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon” and that “Republicans in Congress meanwhile have caved to his every whim,” but that “there are no winners in a government shutdown,” but that Democrats face “a Hobson’s Choice: either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.” According to Schumer, this “is no choice at all” – “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” and that “allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”

The problem, in my mind at least, is that Trump and co-President Musk are going to do (heck, is ALREADY DOING) all the bad stuff – seizing more power, waging war on the federal workforce slashing crucial government programs, establishing a kleptocracy the likes of which the world has never seen, etc. – lawlessly and unconstitutionally. Which means that Democrats can either be: 1) a serious RESISTANCE to this illegality and violations of the constitution, rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, etc.; 2) a weak, divided, ineffectual party that inspires nobody, serves basically no purpose, and might as well hang it up if it’s going to act this way. For my part, the choice isn’t a “Hobson’s Choice” (where “only one option is truly available, or where the only alternative is to accept nothing at all”), but a real, even existential choice that Democrats need to make – to do the right thing, to use all their power to defend our democracy, and to go down fighting if necessary. At least there’s honor in that; there’s none in appeasement and caving to a thug (who obviously will sense weakness and keep pushing for more…).