The question isn’t who won the shutdown standoff, but who lost? As MoveOn.org, pro-illegal immigration activists, and many left-leaning news outlets have made painfully clear, the Democrats are the big losers in “the shutdown war.”
Sensing that public sentiment was turning against them for putting illegal immigrants ahead of legal citizens, the Democrats, under the leadership of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, caved on the funding bill on Monday, less than three days after making their big stand for DREAMers. The blowback from the Left has been swift and strong. Here are the five most brutal responses from the Left in no particular order:
1. “They Grew A Pair On Friday Night And They Couldn’t Find Them Today”
Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of pro-immigrant group America’s Voice, gave Talking Points Memo a perfect below-the-belt quote in a conference call Monday night.
“They grew a pair on Friday night and they couldn’t find them today,” Sharry said after the vote. “Friday night, Democrats stood together and said ‘we’re going to take on this racist bully.’ … By Monday morning they were climbing down for very little in return. Come on, Democrats.”
2. It’s A Case of “Political Malpractice”
Indivisible Project’s Ezra Levin chimed in with another smackdown of Schumer and his party.
“It’s morally reprehensible and political malpractice,” Levin told TPM during the same conference call. “It’s Schumer’s job to keep his caucus together and stand up for progressive values, and he failed on both fronts. We’re going to be holding the Democrats accountable who caved.”
TPM says that when they informed activists on the conference call that Democrats had caved, “the news was met with a stunned silence.”
3. Dreamer Shames Schumer On CNN
As HotAir’s Allahpundit highlights, DREAMer Juan Escalante is one of the many voices on the Left decrying the Democrats’ “cave heard ’round the world.” Here’s Escalante asking Schumer and company “What happened?”
4. Uber-Left MoveOn.org Unloads On Democrats’ “Bad,Outrageous Deal”
Far-left MoveOn.org is likewise livid about the “bad, outrageous deal” struck by Schumer. Here’s the full statement from MoveOn slamming the Democrats for having “abandoned” DREAMers:
This is a bad, outrageous deal. Trump and Republicans in Congress stood with their anti-immigrant nativist base, and too many Democrats backed down, abandoned Dreamers, and failed to fight for their values.
The fight is far from over—with days until DACA expires for all recipients and with the Senate now likely to consider the Dream Act that the vast majority of Americans support, the grassroots progressive movement is committed to mobilizing alongside Dreamers until we win.
5. Politico: “Democrats Lost The Shutdown War”
In a piece unsubtly titled “Democrats Get Rolled In Shutdown Standoff,” Politico smacks the party the outlet usually goes to lengths to defend. Here’s how the blistering piece begins:
Senate Democrats shut down the government in hopes of striking a deal to shield 700,000 young immigrants from deportation. In the end, they got a promise of a vote — one that Republicans argue was going to happen anyway.
Democrats lost the shutdown war. That much was obvious when they voted Monday to reopen the government with little to show for it. They had vowed for weeks not to back any funding bill without a bipartisan agreement to protect so-called Dreamers. But as Washington entered Day Three of a government shutdown, Democrats folded, voting to reopen the government barely any closer to their goal.
Politico then dismantles the talking points the Democrats have rolled out to save face and notes that the “moral high ground” the Democrats believed they held crumbled because, this time, the Republicans “didn’t budge.” As recent polls show, a majority of the public agreed with Republicans’ take on the shutdown: “while the public wants a solution for Dreamers, it doesn’t want it at the expense of shutting down the government.”
H/T HotAir