Progressives, stop the magical thinking!

Grassroots Democrats grouse Chuck Schumer failed, blinked, abandoned, colludes with Trump,. etc. by allowing a cloture vote on the continuing resolution keeping government open. Resisting fascism is a pressing concern, but I need to ask these complainers —What the hell do you think would happen if the government shut down? What magical resistance straight from West Wing moment do you believe would unfold?

For anyone complaining about Schumer, I advise you to take a listen to Ezra Klein’s interview of Kara Swisher.

Swisher has known Musk and assorted Silicon Valley mafia members for decades and her disdain for the lot drips like newly-tariffed maple syrup. Her point is clear. Musk does not care about anyone impacted by DOGE. Not a person. Musk wants to break everything even while knowing he has no plan to rebuild. He sees himself as a genius and everyone should just get out of his genius way. Look at Twitter today versus what he bought and you can see Musk’s “vision” for the United States.

Obviously, this lack of regard for fellow humans bonds Trump and Musk. I cannot emphasize this enough. Trump, Musk et. al. do not care. Even when push back seems to work, like protecting the phone claim system at Social Security, they simply pivot to a new, less obvious, plan to end the service. This is a difficult notion for progressives to accept, because past struggles have had opponents with some connection to and concern for humanity that could be leveraged for change. No, this is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed sociopathy and fascism we are up against.

DOGE would thrive in shutdown

Trump, Musk, et. al. would prefer a shut down government. Gets them where they want to go quicker and Democrats cannot escape all blame. Here is where Schumer critics show their magical thinking—that somehow the Republicans would take all the shutdown blame leaving Democrats unscathed and Americans rallied to their side. But this result is far from certain for the popular imagination. In fact, I bet the Republican plan was to bait Democrats into shutting down the government. Why do you think the crazy caucus in the house behaved themselves and voted for the CR? They were assured of a plan that could push Democrats into a shutdown, then blame them for it AND enable DOGE to dismantle government at warp speed.

Close your eyes and play a shutdown out in your thoughts. Would Trump or Musk lose any sleep? Essential workers would show up unpaid and if you do not care about people, enough work gets done while the balance of government collapses from entropy. And, DOGE, classified as essential, means muskrats roaming federal buildings with impunity as most workers are required to say home. So, just when the good guys were winning in court to get folks back to work and bind some wounds, Schumer critics would hand Trump and Musk a gun to just kill the government outright.

Behind an 8-Ball

I played a great deal of pool during my misspent youth. Sometimes you get stuck with a table that has no clean shot. But, you do not want to scratch and give your opponent an easy way forward. Instead, you play a safety. Hit an object ball and a rail to get out of your problem without creating a larger one. Schumer looked out at a miserable table and took the only reasonable shot. Progressives argued to just smack the balls around to see what happens, or somehow play a supposedly-possible four rail bank shot. This is not a productive response to a miserable situation.

Progressives can create more resistance with an open government, fighting every injustice and dragging Trump and Musk into court whenever possible. At least in court, it is clear who is listening to the judge and who is not. Our progressive problem is this urge to “do something” that is unrooted in any strategy except that the people will follow if we resist. How many revolutionaries died following a path like this? DOGE shows destruction without a plan is easy. But rebuilding requires one. Resistance without a plan is simply destruction in another form. Progressives need to plan.