The Unfair Position Senator Chuck Schumer Is In
By Thomas Hoffman
At last report, the new Senate Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer is about to receive some house guests that are not going to make his job any easier. There is a rally planned outside Senator Schumer’s home; not his office, not the capital, his Brooklyn home. Apparently the far-left is not excited about the direction Schumer may take the Democratic Party in. This is not the first time there have been attacks like this on Senator Schumer.
Since Trump’s election, there have been calls from the far left to come down hard on Schumer. An article from The Young Turks implied they wanted Sanders to be the Democratic leader in the Senate, not Schumer. There is another clip from The Young Turks that openly supports the claim that Schumer is a Republican. Senator Schumer is in danger of the same problem many other centrist politicians face, getting attacked by both sides.
It’s concerning “celebrity” and extremist politicians usually have the upper hand on either side. Our most recent election was no exception. There is an article in the Boston Herald about Jon Huntsman Jr. titled “Too Sane, Too Plain.” The article was about Huntsman Jr., but it could have easily applied to many politicians including Schumer. It is becoming a common story. Centrist Democrat is forced to cater to the far-left to secure the base. Then, on the national stage, the Democrat must appeal to independent and moderate voters. The Democrat is then either accused of flip-flopping or being too progressive.
Schumer’s book titled Positively American, is not “positively socialist” and that’s what you can probably expect from his agenda. Positively American has plenty that can attract an independent voter and plenty to disgust the far-left. A lot of Positively American revolves around middle class centrist voters, and how to appeal to them. Already the far left is starting to attack Schumer before he even gets started. There have been threats to “tea party” Schumer if he fails to devote his entire career to thwarting Trump regardless of the issue. Despite attacks from the far left, it is doubtful Schumer can expect much defense from the GOP. Once again, we have a centrist politician getting attacked by both sides. Once again the “too sane, too plain” problem.
The only advice I can offer people like The Young Turks, and all Democrats, is don’t be too hard on Schumer. This is the person who led the Democrats to a Senate majority in 2006, and he is needed to do the same now. This is who Schumer is and always will be. One final word of advice for the far left: don’t be too fast to give up on centrist Democrats. One of them did just win the popular vote after all.
Thomas Hoffman is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College. He majored in Communication Arts, with a Concentration in Professional and Promotional Communication. He has received several awards for writing in The Mortimer Levit Writing Contest.
Photo by Senate Democrats https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdmc/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdmc/24305804949) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons