Why Chuck Schumer’s rant should concern us | Tom Moran - nj.com
He’s from Brooklyn, he tells us, so give him a pass for sounding like a thug. Sen. Chuck Schumer lost his mind last week, briefly, when he stood in front of the Supreme Court and threatened two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as the court heard arguments in a Louisiana abortion case.“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” he said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Our demented president says boorish and dangerous stuff like this all the time, so most Democrats shrugged it off.
But they should be bothered. They should speak up. It’s more important than it might seem at first glance.
“The more we hate the other guys, the more we will forgive on our own side, and that’s really dangerous,” says Steven Levitsky, co-author of the most important book of the Trump era, How Democracies Die.In the last century, democracies that died tended to go out with a bang, typically by a military coup. But it’s different now. In places like Venezuela, Turkey, and Hungary, elected leaders have strangled their democracies slowly. And in the book, Levitsky and co-author Daniel Ziblatt describe exactly how they do it. They pack courts with loyalists, or intimidate judges. They put journalists in jail. They abuse the machinery of law enforcement to prosecute enemies and protect friends. They demonize their opponents to justify breaking the rules. They make up facts.
Sound like anyone we know? We are lucky to live in a country with strong guardrails that can contain a president like Donald Trump -- at least mostly, so far.
“The foundations of our democracy are certainly stronger than those in Venezuela, Turkey or Hungary,” Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote in the Guardian. “But are they strong enough?”
The danger is Trump, who checks every box to qualify as an authoritarian wanna-be. So why am I picking on Schumer?
Because democracies tend to crash and burn only after political leaders break what the authors describe as “democratic norms” -- and one of them is that you treat opponents as legitimate, even when you want to hit them in the nose really hard.
They call it “mutual toleration” and we are losing our grip on it fast these days, as the Mad King throws matches on every fault line in our society to fire up his followers.
“It’s really hard to uphold the norms when the other guy is not doing it,” Levitsky says. “Democrats are under a ton of pressure, often from their own base, to retaliate in kind. There’s a perception among many activists…that Democrats are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.”
Schumer’s anger is beyond justified. Remember that Republicans won this conservative majority on the court by cheating, essentially, when they refused to consider President Obama’s last nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. That has put abortion rights at risk, among other horrors. That is norm-breaking on steroids.
By comparison, Schumer’s offense is minuscule. He says he regrets his wording, that it’s how people from Brooklyn roll. What he meant, he says, was that Republicans in general will face a political backlash if they restrict abortion rights. That probably is what he meant, but it’s miles from what he actually said. This screams out for an apology that will never come.
“Things can escalate very quickly,” Levitsky warns. “It’s hard to stop the train.”
The surge in support for Joe Biden is based, the polls say, on the conviction that he’s the safest bet to beat Trump in November. But he’s also the most likely to restore some social peace, to remind us that we agree on many things, to de-escalate the partisan warfare that ruined other democracies. He has his flaws, but he’s a decent man whose instinct is to reach for common ground.
It’s true, as Levitsky says, that some Democrats want to cast off all restraint, to fight with every weapon against a president who is a genuine menace. I get that. If I had a dart board, I’d put a picture of Trump’s mug on it.
But Biden’s support speaks to another strain in the party, one that wants to stop the shouting, and do the practical work of governing -- to build infrastructure, cut the price of prescription drugs, and raise wages.
As for Schumer, I don’t mean to pick on him. He’s trying hard to get funding for the Hudson River tunnel, so I am normally ready to throw my jacket over a puddle to keep his feet dry. And his threat was out of character.
But let’s hope Democrats keep their cool as the election heats up. It’s not just good manners. It helps safeguard our democracy.
More: Tom Moran columns
He’s from Brooklyn, he tells us, so give him a pass for sounding like a thug. Sen. Chuck Schumer lost his mind last week, briefly, when he stood in front of the Supreme Court and threatened two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as the court heard arguments in a Louisiana abortion case.“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” he said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Our demented president says boorish and dangerous stuff like this all the time, so most Democrats shrugged it off.
But they should be bothered. They should speak up. It’s more important than it might seem at first glance.
“The more we hate the other guys, the more we will forgive on our own side, and that’s really dangerous,” says Steven Levitsky, co-author of the most important book of the Trump era, How Democracies Die.In the last century, democracies that died tended to go out with a bang, typically by a military coup. But it’s different now. In places like Venezuela, Turkey, and Hungary, elected leaders have strangled their democracies slowly. And in the book, Levitsky and co-author Daniel Ziblatt describe exactly how they do it. They pack courts with loyalists, or intimidate judges. They put journalists in jail. They abuse the machinery of law enforcement to prosecute enemies and protect friends. They demonize their opponents to justify breaking the rules. They make up facts.
Sound like anyone we know? We are lucky to live in a country with strong guardrails that can contain a president like Donald Trump -- at least mostly, so far.
“The foundations of our democracy are certainly stronger than those in Venezuela, Turkey or Hungary,” Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote in the Guardian. “But are they strong enough?”
The danger is Trump, who checks every box to qualify as an authoritarian wanna-be. So why am I picking on Schumer?
Because democracies tend to crash and burn only after political leaders break what the authors describe as “democratic norms” -- and one of them is that you treat opponents as legitimate, even when you want to hit them in the nose really hard.
They call it “mutual toleration” and we are losing our grip on it fast these days, as the Mad King throws matches on every fault line in our society to fire up his followers.
“It’s really hard to uphold the norms when the other guy is not doing it,” Levitsky says. “Democrats are under a ton of pressure, often from their own base, to retaliate in kind. There’s a perception among many activists…that Democrats are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.”
Schumer’s anger is beyond justified. Remember that Republicans won this conservative majority on the court by cheating, essentially, when they refused to consider President Obama’s last nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. That has put abortion rights at risk, among other horrors. That is norm-breaking on steroids.
By comparison, Schumer’s offense is minuscule. He says he regrets his wording, that it’s how people from Brooklyn roll. What he meant, he says, was that Republicans in general will face a political backlash if they restrict abortion rights. That probably is what he meant, but it’s miles from what he actually said. This screams out for an apology that will never come.
“Things can escalate very quickly,” Levitsky warns. “It’s hard to stop the train.”
The surge in support for Joe Biden is based, the polls say, on the conviction that he’s the safest bet to beat Trump in November. But he’s also the most likely to restore some social peace, to remind us that we agree on many things, to de-escalate the partisan warfare that ruined other democracies. He has his flaws, but he’s a decent man whose instinct is to reach for common ground.
It’s true, as Levitsky says, that some Democrats want to cast off all restraint, to fight with every weapon against a president who is a genuine menace. I get that. If I had a dart board, I’d put a picture of Trump’s mug on it.
But Biden’s support speaks to another strain in the party, one that wants to stop the shouting, and do the practical work of governing -- to build infrastructure, cut the price of prescription drugs, and raise wages.
As for Schumer, I don’t mean to pick on him. He’s trying hard to get funding for the Hudson River tunnel, so I am normally ready to throw my jacket over a puddle to keep his feet dry. And his threat was out of character.
But let’s hope Democrats keep their cool as the election heats up. It’s not just good manners. It helps safeguard our democracy.
More: Tom Moran columns
Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
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