BOTH of my senators caved. Ridiculous and embarrassing.

Cortez-Masto and Rosen, for my fellow Nevadans.

These people are unhinged militant centrists.

It may seem paradoxical, but it is actually possible to be an extreme centrist. The hard truth of American politics is that there are no actual centrist voters. You won’t find any significant number of people whose views largely lie right between the platforms of the two parties. What you have instead are voters whose views simply don’t align well with the existing party coalitions. Their views may still be extremely strong. Think someone that is extremely pro-choice while also owning a dozen AR-15s. Maybe they have a home in the Libertarian Party, but they have no real home in either major party. They believe passionately on both subjects, they are anything but moderate for both their support of abortion choice and guns. But because their views don’t map cleanly to one side or the other’s arbitrary grab bag of chosen issues, this voter is called a centrist. But they’re not really a centrist. They just have weak partisan alignment.

But people like these? They are actual militant centrists. In many way these politicians are the only true centrists in America. They have formed a worldview that concludes that the right answer to any single issue must lie right in the middle between the two sides. One side wants to raise taxes on the rich while the other wants to cut them? The obviously correct answer must be to keep the taxes steady. Trump wants to turn millions of legal immigrants into illegal immigrants and then deport them, while progressives want to deport no law-abiding person? The correct answer must be to brutalize merely a few thousand innocent people. Progressives want to protect trans rights while Republicans want to liquidate trans people in ovens? The obvious answer must be some roll back of trans civil rights.

People like Schumer, Fetterman, etc. are militant centrists. They will obsessively tack to the very middle of any issue. And this is fundamentally a purely ideological position, the same as any extremist. A militant racist is so committed to theories of racial superiority that they’ll want to see racist policies enacted, even if they hurt the country, even if they hurt the racist themselves, regardless of even if white people are hurt. A militant socialist might demand state ownership of every type of business and enterprise, even if there’s no market failure and private companies can run those things just fine. You would have to be a pretty extreme socialist to think that the government should be running bars for example.

This is the defining feature of extremism and militancy - a willingness to put one’s own ideology above everything else. All that matters is the ideology. It is correct with a capital C. It is truth with a capital T. Any evidence against the ideology is dismissed or explained away.

These people are not moderate. They are militant centrists. Pick an issue, no matter the context or the evidence clear for all to see. They will always tack right in the middle between the two sides. They believe, in their heart of hearts, that the middle path is always the correct one. And they don’t care how many people have to die to keep their cherished view of centrism preserved. They are as extreme and militant as any far-right militia member. They just follow the ideology of centrism rather than conservatism.

Oh look it’s the pattern that’s been happening my entire fucking life.

And as usual my senator caves.

Good! That way in the Midterms Voters can Remember that Democrats SHUTDOWN the Government and Forced us into INTENSE Hardship for LITERALLY no Reason ended the Shutdown!

OP left out Chuck Schumer’s DC office number which is at www.schumer.senate.gov/contact

(Kinda doubt I can just post the number on its own without getting in trouble with the mods)

Any deal that doesn’t put everything in one bill is worthless.

Let’s pretend for one moment that Republicans actually joined Democrats in passing the extension of ACA credits and any other concessions they got in the negotiations. Even if they passed the bill, Trump can just veto it. As long as he gets what he needs in a separate bill, he can veto anything else. And if there’s enough support for the compromise to overturn a veto, there’s enough to prevent it by passing it all as one bill.

But I’m sure Schumer will happily explain how Republicans voting against the ACA credits will be on their permanent record and how that will make this all worthwhile.

Totally expected Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) to be on that list

You mean these Dems are in cahoots with the GOP. There’s no fucking reason why to back down now when the pressure is on unless their handlers are telling them to.

“Deal”

Give the GOP everything it wants. Get nothing in return.

Like a cheap suit. Stay classy.

The last election just showed that the shutdown isn’t hurting Democrats even slightly.

They’re not “caving” they’re collaborators that want to help the Republican Party.

I really can’t think of a reason for them to cave other than worry that Trump will actually pressure Republicans into ending the filibuster and they might have to start doing their fucking jobs.

Or Republicans might lose too hard and then scary progressive things could happen.

Bought off with private deals.

Time to get busy supporting your favorite third party candidate.

All this time, just to cave to the word of the Republicans is nasty work and on purpose. There is always a group of Dems who are Republicans best allies.