MAYBE, JUST MAYBE there is some role for what Schumer said was his role in supporting Israel and making sure it got as much of our money and support as he could get for it as a New York Senator. If I were from New York I wouldn't think so but I'm not from New York. That’s certainly a matter for his constituents to decide if they want that, too. Though I would have my doubts about it. If any Senator said it was their job to make sure any other country going on three quarters of a century had, effectively, a blank check from the American People, no one would figure that was OK. No, not even that focus of such dual loyalty under our idiotic law, the putative "Mother Country," Britain. Don't get me started.
But Schumer didn’t say that was his role as a Senator from his state, he said it was his role as Democratic Leader in the Senate which makes it quite a different matter. Democratic Senators from every state who support him in that position have, essentially, adopted his stance since he says that’s part of his job. Including one of my Senators now, the Independent Angus King who caucuses with Democrats and two after Troy Jackson takes office. Troy Jackson has already said he opposed Schumer as the Democratic Leader in the Senate, I don’t know what Angus King has said about that. Having him as the Democratic leader makes that position the position of the entire caucus.
The Republican mouthpieces like The Hill claim that Schumer already has the leadership vote sewn up, probably a tip from his office, but that can change if everyone who wants someone new and likely more effective and less tied to an increasingly opposed ideology that will be guaranteed to become ballot box poison pressures our Senators into removing their support for him.
If AOC or someone else could primary him AND KEEP THE SEAT DEMOCRATIC, I would favor that route. Schumer will be 77 when he’s up for reelection in two years and I favor a mandatory retirement age of 75 for Senators (much as I would miss several of my favorites), he would be the same age Mitch McConnell was when his senility became obvious by the end of that term. We should have a reasonable expectation that someone we put in that God forsaken body for six years will live out their term.
Like Jeffries, he has already said he’s opposed to real universal health care for Americans, something which we need, SOMETHING HE HAS HAD HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE AS A POLITICIAN, since he was 23. Just that one stand makes him unqualified to do the job he wants to keep.
Getting back to the topic of your accusation, bringing up "dual loyalty." What else is it when someone in elective office takes the position he did in public? I'll ask again, if someone said the same thing substituting the name of any other country in place of "Israel," how could that stand not constitute dual loyalty? And given the suspicion that he and the DSCC which he controlled withheld and then gave totally inadequate support to a candidate whose nearly winning showed she could have won, and she wasn't the only one they withheld support from, likely her opposition to his stated ideology playing a role in that, CHUCK SCHUMER AND ANYONE ELSE WHO TAKES THAT STAND WHILE HOLDING OFFICE MAKES THAT A LEGITIMATE ISSUE.
It would have been the same with the nut-case Haley Stevens or any other politician who took that stand. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone is Jewish. It has to do with whether or not they are Zionists. I would ask the same question about Joe Biden after he declared himself to be a Zionist. And there are a number of Jewish members of Congress who oppose knee-jerk Zionism or, in fact, support for Israel and who aren't justifiably suspected of it.
"Dual loyalty" is a lot like "conspiracy theory" as a blanket dismissal. There are myriad and dangerous dual loyalties in American politics and the law. Its certainly a problem with those who are even more dually loyal to billionaires and millionaires and white supremacy and other fascist ideologies. Look at the members of the Roberts Court to see how dangerous that really and truly is. Many Republican fascists and not a few on the so-called left have a dual loyalty to Putin's fascist government as, in fact, some did to Hitler's and Mussolini's. But they don't tend to hold leadership positions in the House or Senate Democratic caucuses in 2026.
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