Democrats Are Being Sent Bombs and Chuck Schumer's Top Priority Is Still Appeasing Republicans
On Wednesday morning, the offices at CNN, which have already been the threatened by Donald Trump supporters, were evacuated over a suspicious package. In the last 24 hours alone, bombs have been mailed to the homes of billionaire George Soros, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and the office of Barack Obama—basically, the three biggest boogeymen in the world according to rightwing conspiracy theories and Fox News.
News about the packages sent to the Clintons and Obama is still developing, but the one in Soros's mailbox was left on Tuesday. Soros has been accused of all manner of conspiracies at this point, including funding nearly every protest in the last two years and providing money and resources to the immigrant caravan that Trump has decided is his key to keeping Republicans in power after the midterms. (Often, Soros is used as a poorly veiled stand-in for Jews in general.) While Republicans were foaming at the mouth over Maxine Waters's endorsement of public shaming, there was relatively little outcry over the attempt to murder Soros. That's likely to change in light of the second two attempted bombings, though it's doubtful there will be contrition or even that Republican acknowledgement of them will last more than a day.
On the Democrat side, though, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke out quickly, but decided to use it as a way to kowtow to Republicans.
To be clear, vandalism and bombing are not proportionally destructive. Property damage and actual violence against human beings are not equally bad and it takes either a deformed or dishonest world view to claim that they are. Yet his response to the news about Soros receiving a bomb is to immediately undercut that distinction and put the incident on the same level as a glum-looking Jeff Flake being rightfully yelled at by sexual assault survivors.
But Schumer's highest priority as Minority Leader seems to be appeasing Republicans. In August, rather than force McConnell into a slow, protracted procedure for confirming Trump nominees to lifetime judicial appointments, Schumer agreed to a mass confirmation of 11 at once, allegedly so that Democrats up for reelection could leave the Senate early to campaign at home. In truth though, the move infuriated progressive activists and Democratic supporters.
Republicans are painting themselves as martyrs because the most loathed men in the country are being mildly inconvenienced at their overpriced meals. But Schumer—when faced with literal bombs being sent to the right's most demonized figures, when faced with a ruling party whose president gleefully riles up crowds by coyly encouraging violence—just shrugs and basically says, "Nobody's perfect."
