Bless his heart, bless Chuck Schumer’s heart. And we are all Mississippians now, so we know what that means. We need new, aggressive, smart, principled leadership in our newly-conquered Upper Chamber, not sternly worded letters. This is Wartime, Wartime not behind us but only beginning, and we need a Wartime Senate Majority Leader.
SO CALL OUR SENATORS, Adam Schiff & Alex Padilla, and ask them to vote for Chris Van Hollen to be the next Majority Leader! You can get both of them at the handy all-Senators number 202-224-3121. BUT IT IS BEST TO WRITE TO THEM, using these links: PADILA HERE, SCHIFF HERE.
This may not be a convincing argument to Schiff or Padilla, but hopefully it’ll get YOU motivated to get on this as convincingly as possible: Schumer has received NEARLY TWO MILLION in AIPAC money over his long career; Van Hollen does not take or get ANY money from AIPAC. In fact, a longtime fighter against Citizens United, Van Hollen accepts no direct corporate contributions, and receives very little IE money from PACs, who don’t bother trying to sway him.
But here I’m convincing you to support Van Hollen over Schumer, when what you and I need is to figure out how to convince California’s very cautious and conservative Senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, to vote that way. How do we do that?
I know both Adam and Alex would like to end Trump’s stupid and disastrous war on Iran. Schumer is clueless on how to do that, but Van Hollen has a bold plan. The superpower of Congress (and Senate) is FUNDING, and Van Hollen is hellbent on STOPPING THE FUNDING FOR THE WAR. When we do that, you know Trump and his Party will cry, “Wah, the troops! Democrats are defunding the troops! Democrats hate our troops!” and we need a Senate Leader who’ll say “Fuck that, bring the troops home. We are saving the troops. As well as the economy, stability in the Middle East, and so much else.” Schumer doesn’t play hardball on anything.
Another thing Van Hollen is passionate about is “Medicare For All” (which I guess is the accepted phrase now for single-payer universal healthcare – the single-payer healthcare that all civilized nations have including MEXICO.) Both our California Senators are on record as supporting that – in fact Alex just tweeted about it today and was immediately mobbed by folks telling him to vote Van Hollen – because Van Hollen wants to get Medicare For All as soon as possible, while Chuck Schumer is AGAINST IT.
What is Alex Padilla most famous for? For that time he stood up to Kristi Noem, trying to question her about ICE raids in LA, and got mugged and tackled by her Secret Service. What is Van Hollen most famous for? For when Kilmar Abrego Garcia (his constituent and a perfectly innocent immigrant) got kidnapped and sent off to a brutal El Salvador prison, and Van Hollen WENT DOWN THERE to meet with him, check on him, and eventually bring him back.
You would think Padilla would admire Van Hollen greatly for that – we all should.
Jonathan Larsen at The Fucking News today brought up a good example illustrating the difference between Schumer’s and Van Hollen’s characters. Remember back in July when Zohran Mamdani stunned the world by winning the Democratic primary for New York Mayor? Mamdani, the Muslim socialist? (Who has turned out to be a wonderful mayor actually.) For the longest time, Schumer and others conspicuously refused to support the guy, it was scandalous. Senator Van Hollen, decrying this “spineless politics,” scolded Schumer righteously:
“We’ve become a party that too often trims its sails. Too cautious, too rudderless. Too attached to poll-washed, pundit-rinsed, and donor-dried messages… This finger in the wind stuff has got to end. We also need to stop deluding ourselves that the problem is all about messaging, or about volume, or style … We don’t just need to fight. We need to fight FOR something.”
I want THAT guy leading my Senate. Bernie is supporting Chris, and so is Abdul. Chris says he has at least ten supporters so far, he needs 29, and he seems to be most popular with our exciting BRAND NEW Senators we elected this week, as opposed to the oldtimers.
But OUR job – yours and mine, if you choose to accept it – is to convince Schiff and Padilla to take this plunge. Again, call them at 202-224-3121, and most importantly write to PADILA HERE, and SCHIFF HERE.
Larsen has more advice: “Don’t just call or write your senators. Be visible. Get on social media. Hell, protest their offices. Make up orgs to recruit primary challengers against them. Be like the pufferfish, make yourself look bigger than you are, and soon enough you will be…“
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is trying to gather enough signatures on a pro-Van Hollen card to make a splash in the media and/or the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.
And Indivisible has a handy form for writing to your senator and politely letting them know you’d like some America back please.
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