Crime Today News
It is a situation that has not been witnessed in the US. The rank and file of both Republicans and Democrats are up in arms against the party leadership, but for different reasons. Disgruntled Republicans over cuts in federal jobs that is hurting households. And angry Democrats are fuming that their leaders seem to be mute witnesses to the ongoing gutting of agencies. Worse they are seen as clueless on how to respond.
Normally town hall meetings are normal proceedings, where there are a lot of questions from the audience to their elected representatives. And all of this is within the confines of civility and decency. Rarely has one witnessed agitated members of public throwing invectives or law enforcement called in to control situations. Elected representatives of both parties have faced the brunt in recent days.
In fact, Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer, went one step differently: he abruptly cancelled a tour to promote his book fearing a bigger backlash on his relenting and voting for the Republican Continuing Resolution. To be fair to Schumer, Democrats really did not have much of a choice: passage meant spending cuts; refusal meant government shutdown that will be immediately pinned on them by Republicans and gleefully by the White House. Schumer was not alone in the Senate. Nine other Democratic Senators voted to break the filibuster and allow a final vote. In the end two Democrats backed the bill and a lone Republican Senator opposed it.
Few cards to play
Senator Schumer was hammered not just by ordinary Democratic voters but also by the top leadership of the party in the House of Representatives including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But the Senator from New York knew that he had very few cards to play by way of alternatives for every one of Democratic alternatives were shot down.
In the end a reluctant Schumer decided to bite the bullet for another six months with a temporary spending measure instead of jeopardising salaries of federal workers and those of the troops.
It is not as if anything much is going to change between now and September when another continuing Resolution will come around. For distraught Republicans the gutting of the federal agencies will continue; the latest in the series being the start of the dismantling of the Department of Education. And to Democrats, the watch in shock and disbelief will continue.
The agonising part seems to be in a search for viable leadership that can effectively cobble up a coalition of the willing and unwilling to offer a meaningful alternative. And no one seems to be on the horizon.
The astonishing part of the goings on is that none of it is surprising. Every one of the things that President Donald Trump has done in the last eight weeks is something he promised he would do during the course of the campaign trail — on immigration, trade, tariffs, gutting the federal agencies and dismantling the Department of Education, to mention a few. What has shocked many is the fashion in which President Trump has gone about.
And for a person who has said he would be the last to start wars, the hammering of the Houthis in Yemen as a retaliation for attacks on shipping opens up the potential of a front that may not close all that easily.
But the most disturbing part of the political scene in America is of a Democratic Party yet to come to terms with the drubbing of November 2024. Harping on a loss is one thing but failure to learn relevant lessons is a totally different matter.
It is here that the emerging leadership must have the foresight to understand the pulse of the base which does not seem to be overly concerned about some esoteric notions of yesteryear ideologies; rather, for instance, on immediate needs of the household like food and health.
The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC on North America and United Nations
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