Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, Report for Duty
NOV 05, 2026
A favorite movie of mine is “The Cooler,” starring William H. Macy. Macy plays a sad sack, a loser, a guy down at the mouth and down on his luck. He’s employed as a “cooler” at a casino. Whenever someone is winning too much at the roulette wheel or at craps, Macy goes and stands near the high-rolling winner. Within moments, the high-roller starts to lose, and lose big. Macy is good at his job.
Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are the Democratic Party’s coolers. They’re being sent in by the house (the owners and donors in America’s casino-style capitalism) to cool any real change that might hurt the bottom line of the rich. And they’re good at their jobs.
Another “cooler” is the “liberal” New York Times. I caught this summary this morning of the Democratic Party’s goals come next year:
Congress. Chuck Schumer, the likely Senate majority leader, says job No. 1 is to bring down the cost of living for Americans. Democrats want to reverse Medicaid cuts, restore Obamacare subsidies, limit Trump’s ability to impose tariffs and curtail a war that has raised fuel costs. Trump promises he can be “Mr. Veto” if necessary. Even so, Democrats can force his allies into votes they’ll regret when the next election comes around.
Democrats also want to exercise their constitutional power to check the executive branch and conduct oversight. Now they promise to investigate crypto windfalls, well-timed stock trades and a wedding party for the president’s son bankrolled by a Kremlin-connected oligarch. One House Democrat said in a statement on Tuesday that White House officials should “lawyer up.”
Cooler, indeed. Basically, it’s a return to the Biden status quo. I like the part about curtailing a war that has raised fuel costs. Is that the worst part of the Iran War—that it’s raised fuel costs? And why “curtail” instead of ending the war? Isn’t the war illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and disastrous?
Also, I like the part about going after Trump and his family for profiting from insider trading and the like. Speaking of that, Nancy Pelosi and many other leading Democrats should also “lawyer up.”
Of course, you’ll notice what isn’t mentioned by these coolers. There’s nothing about raising the minimum wage, nothing about single-payer health care, nothing about ending wars globally, nothing about major cuts to spending on wasteful wars and obsolete weaponry, and most certainly nothing about cutting weapons and other “aid” to Israel as it pursues a genocide in Gaza.
Among rank-and-file Democrats at the moment, there’s a lot of positive energy. A lot of high hopes for real and substantive changes. But the house has already taken action—it’s sending in the coolers, because the little guy and gal can’t be allowed to win when those wins hurt the bottom line of the owners.
