Chuck Schumer is one of the big winners of this past election. Having presided over the last two Senate elections, he can call in chits from the fourteen new Democratic senators elected during that period. He will jump to the chairmanship of the Senate Rules Committee and he will continue as the Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus (the number three position). Joshua Green has an excellent profile on Schumer’s rise to power in this month’s Atlantic. There is a lot in that article that is worthy of debate. What’s important is that Schumer’s vision is going to have a lot of influence over the next two years.
It would be incorrect to see Schumer’s philosophy as a reprise of the Democratic Leadership Council’s Third Way pro-corporate strategy. On the other hand, it would also be incorrect to see Schumer as pushing a traditionally progressive program. Schumer is not really ideological. He’s relentlessly strategic and practical. His goal is to create a new paradigm where the party focuses mainly on the aspirations of a struggling middle class in order to wed their goals to the goals of the poor rather than with the goals of the upper class and rich.
But, in order to do this, Schumer wants to regularly slap-down traditional liberal groups that advocate for the poor. In doing this, he isn’t interested in thwarting progressive policy so much as he is interested in convincing the middle class that the party’s policies are aimed at them and not at people lower down on the economic ladder. It’s optics and politics that are driving Schumer, but it’s part of a larger goal of passing progressive legislation on terms that will remain broadly popular.
It’s hard to argue against the effectiveness of Schumer’s Plan so far. But we should keep in mind that we’re entering a new phase with Democrats in control of everything. We’re also experiencing a economic downturn that will do more to cement the common interests of the middle class and the poor, as more of the former become members of the latter. The economic difficulties could be serendipitous for Schumer’s vision, as an increasing percentage of the electorate lives in the sweet spot where Schumer hopes to draw support.
In any case, the article is worth reading and debating because it spells out the paradigm which will be operative in the early stages of this Congress.
