"You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonor, and you will have war" -- Winston Churchill.
In February of 2021, seven Republican senators crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats to impeach Donald Trump for the second time:
7 GOP Senators Voted To Convict Trump. Only 1 Faces Voters Next Year
That voted failed the meet the 2/3rds majority threshold which would have removed Trump from office, barred him from holding any future office and spared us all the nightmare we are living through now. Because, despite giving as good an imitation of an impassioned speech as an empty husk with a dead soul can give, in the end then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to take the coward's way out when he refused to vote for impeachment, and refused to whip his caucus for enough voted to impeach.
In private, of course, Republican leadership knew full well what kind of monster they had on their hands. But after a minute or two of virtue signaling, they collapsed back into the cowardice/cynicism crouch which has defined the modern Republican party.
‘I’ve Had It With This Guy’: G.O.P. Leaders Privately Blasted Trump After Jan. 6
In the days after the attack, Representative Kevin McCarthy planned to tell Mr. Trump to resign. Senator Mitch McConnell told allies impeachment was warranted. But their fury faded fast.
The confidential expressions of outrage from Mr. McCarthy and Mr. McConnell, which have not been previously reported, illustrate the immense gulf between what Republican leaders say privately about Mr. Trump and their public deference to a man whose hold on the party has gone virtually unchallenged for half a decade.
The leaders’ swift retreat in January 2021 represented a capitulation at a moment of extraordinary political weakness for Mr. Trump — perhaps the last and best chance for mainstream Republicans to reclaim control of their party from a leader who had stoked an insurrection against American democracy itself.
Instead McConnell took the time-tested approach of ignoring the problem and hoping it would just go away on its own.
‘Unchecked’ book excerpt: Inside McConnell’s decision not to convict Trump
“Let’s just ignore him,” the GOP Senate leader said at one point, underscoring his hands-off approach on whether to stand up to pro-Trump lawmakers after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
And if ignoring the monster they created didn't work, well, who ya gonna call when Republicans fuck things up and don't have the moral character to fix what they have broken?
“The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” Mr. McConnell said, referring to the imminent impeachment vote in the House.
And now, by a darkly hilarious quirk of history, seven is also the number of Democratic senators (well, six and one Independent) who, instead of crossing the aisle to stand up to Trump, have crossed the aisle to join with 100% of Republican senators to invest Trump with virtually dictatorial powers ... sign Washington D.C.'s death warrant ... a list of other horribles
For future reference, the senators who sold us out and sold out their House colleagues who voted the right way are John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, my very own senator Dick Durbin of Illinois to his everlasting shame, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.
And the leader of this cadre of weaklings and sell swords was, as you also already know, Senate Minority Leader, Cuck Schumer.
Schumer is a creature shaped by the ancient mores and folkways of a Beltway culture which no longer exists and which, by all rights, should have died when they put old David Broder in the ground. The culture of High Borderism in which is was acceptable for Republicans to lie and sabotage with, as Steve Benen wrote back in 2009 "no apparent interest in being a credible governing partner, and no intention to negotiate honestly", but it was unpardonably rude -- perhaps even a fainting offense -- for Democrats to point this out.
As I wrote of David Fucking Brooks a short time ago, even though, just like the rest of us, Schumer has had his nose repeatedly rubbed in the fact that the old gods are dead, unlike the rest of us, Schumer is still paying obeisance to this long-dead god in a temple which has long since fallen to rubble.
Schumer is a creature of back-slapping, back room deal-making, where there is always a shitty "bipartisan" compromise to be found somewhere. He is one of the last of a species that is going extinct, but that don't realize they are already doomed. Who don't know how to function in a world where Trump is possible, and where all his their friends on the Right have either retired, died or gone full fascist, but who are equally incapable of understanding that it is long past time to step aside and let the new people fight this new fight.
And the thing is, above almost anyone else, Schumer should fucking well know better.
As I write this we are just days away from the 22nd anniversary of George W. Bush's Iraqi Clusterfuck. His ill-conceived war of conquest, launched on March 20, 2003 on the basis of a farrago of lies, and which ended up being the greatest American military debacle since Vietnam. But Bush's Iraqi Clusterfuck would never have gotten out of the gate without the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution.
And thanks to his own public comments, we have the answer to that question. From the AP:
Twenty years on, reflection and regret on 2002 Iraq war vote
... Another “yes” vote on the Senate floor that night was New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, now Senate majority leader. With the vote coming a year after Sept. 11 devastated his hometown, he says he believed then that the president deserved the benefit of the doubt when a nation is under attack.
“Of course, with the luxury of hindsight, it’s clear that the president bungled the war from start to finish and should not have ever been given that benefit,” Schumer said in a statement. “Now, with the war firmly behind us, we’re one step closer to putting the war powers back where they belong — in the hands of Congress.”
With the luxury of hindsight of Trump's first term and everything he has said and dine since the, it is 100% obvious to anyone with a pulse and a conscience that he should never, ever have been given the kinds of powers embedded in the CR.
So, what did Cuck Schumer get in exchange for selling out his party and his country?
He earned himself the most bankrupt currency in politics: a handful of "Good Doggie" points from Grandpa Syphilis --
-- just days after Grandpa Syphilis said this about him:
Trump has decided that Chuck Schumer is ‘not Jewish anymore’
The American presidency is a powerful position, but it does not include the power to decide who is and is not Jewish.
And he appears to have succeeded in getting huge swath of the fractious and demoralized Democrat base to unite around a single issue: Getting Cuck Schumer the fuck out of Senate leadership.
Sunny is done with Sen Chuck Schumer’s bullshit and so am I. We need a strong leader that understands the threat that Donald Trump is. Time to step down Chuck, we need a new minority leader that will fight this current administration. #TheReformers pic.twitter.com/FopXGPNYzH
— Brian Cardone 🏴☠️🇺🇦 (@cardon_brian) March 17, 2025
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