Schumer forced to take conciliatory tone in wake of Dems' crushing election losses

Democrats everywhere have been struggling to come to grips with the Republican sweep of the presidency, the House, and the Senate earlier this month, with some now forced into something of a corner as a result.

As Fox News reports, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), soon to lose his coveted position as Senate majority leader, has been striking what is surely a reluctantly conciliatory tone, marking a sharp reversal from the aggressive tone he adopted when he thought Democrats were on a path to victory.

Schumer's pre-election bluster

It was not all that long ago, when pundits and prognosticators gave Democrats a strong chance of prevailing in this month's elections, that Schumer was bursting with bombast about the agenda he planned to pursue in the next Congress.

One issue on which Schumer seemed particularly determined was that of addressing the fate of the Senate filibuster, a procedural measure requiring 60 votes to pass bills and something many on the far left have long wished to end.

Despite prior attempts to kill the filibuster running into obstacles in the form of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Schumer, as recently as this summer, appeared confident in the Democrats' post-election prospects.

In August, Schumer assessed the likely vote count on such a proposal if things went his way at the polls saying, “We got it up to 48, but, of course, Sinema and Manchin voted no; that's why we couldn't change the rules. Well, they're both gone. Ruben Gallego is for it, and we have 51. So, even losing Manchin, we still have 50.”

The end result, if those numbers held, would have been one-party rule in the upper chamber, with Republican opposition effectively neutralized.

Radical agenda scuttled

It was also in August that Schumer outlined to NBC News the laundry list of progressive priorities he intended to push through with the Democrats' anticipated power.

At an event hosted by Politico, Schumer said that he would aim to secure passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, among other things.

He also suggested that an effort would be launched to codify a federal right to abortion, something that became a priority on the left after the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Schumer went on to mention pet projects related to housing, green energy, and tax increases on high earners, all things likely to encounter potentially fatal resistance from Senate Republicans, particularly if the filibuster remained.

Sadly for Schumer, his optimistic projections for Senate races across the country did not hold, with the Republicans poised to enjoy a 53-47 majority that has compelled the Democrat from New York to considerably tone down his bluster and call for the type of bipartisanship he was clearly willing to discard.