With Barack Obama leaving the White House in just about two weeks, and the Democratic Party still reeling from years of losses, progressives have begun looking to new leadership as they take up the business of resistance against some of the more egregious agenda items put forward by President-elect Donald Trump.
In the Senate, Harry Reid is out and Chuck Schumer is in.
The New Yorker takes the mantle of Senate minority leader just in time for the most difficult years of Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill since Ronald Reagan. And does so as his caucus comes together behind the scenes in order to craft a message that may appeal to the American people.
That being said, here are a few things to know about Schumer:
The Democrats ‘might as well’ be from Missouri
Sen. Chuck Schumer (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Schumer was born in Brooklyn, New York, but recently said his caucus might as well “all be from Missouri,” the self-proclaimed Show Me State.
With Trump, he says, there are only empty promises with threats to repeal — unless there’s legislation ready to replace what’s already law. It was another Democrat who first issued a similar resolve, congressman Willard Duncan Sandiver in 1899. “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me,” he said. “I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”
If anyone in Schumer’s caucus will act as a bridge between the caucus and Trump — and Sen. Joe Manchin appears to be their best bet — the Republicans will need more than just lofty rhetoric aimed at undoing Obama’s legacy.
“If they show us a plan,” Schumer told POLITICO, “and it’s a plan that we can live with, of course [we’ll consider it]. But we’re not going to sit down in a room with them once they repeal and say let’s figure out a joint plan.”
The new face of obstruction on Capitol Hill
Sen. Schumer walks in Washington with Obama SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland (Wikimedia Commons)
While the label of nation’s obstructionist-in-chief was proudly worn by Mitch McConnell over the past eight years, that title is now being passed onto his Democratic counterpart in Schumer. The two will be battling over a number of issues, and of course on day one, it will be over Obamacare.
Along with Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the new Democratic Policy and Communications Center leader, Schumer looks to craft a new narrative. One message they’ve cobbled together to describe Trump’s approach to legislating is Make America Sick Again.
That message comes as McConnell promises a repeal of Obamacare “within weeks,” the first of many battles Schumer must position himself for as he works to also defend Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2018 — many of them in states that voted for The Donald this past fall.
There’ll be an attempt to ‘Stonewall’ Mr. Trump
Chuck Schumer marches with megaphone. (Wikimedia Commons)
It was Confederate mastermind Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson who marched his men 646 miles in 48 days to defeat a Union force that vastly upended his own, using new battlefield techniques still studied in military schools to this day.
In preparation for the skirmish on Capitol Hill ahead, Schumer must take a page out of the Southerner’s playbook.
“Stonewalling Trump’s eventual [SCOTUS] nominee would be a major gamble for Democrats,” writes Vanity Fair, “and one that could backfire.” But the alternative is to appear complacent in bipartisan agreement over Trump’s nominee, and Schumer has already indicated a fight over eight important Cabinet picks.
It wouldn’t take a supermajority for them to make it to Trump’s administration. But where laws and appointees do require a supermajority, we will see Schumer leading the blockade.
“Contrary to 2016, when the major focus was on the presidential race,” says Stabenow, “2018 is really the opportunity for Senate Democrats to really be the loudest voice in terms of who we fight for every day.”