For the long view - Durbin's vote was right

I am a Democrat. I have voted for Democrats my entire life. This post will be unpopular among my fellow Democrats. Who knows? It may be popular with Republicans for the wrong reasons. I hope both sides will take time to slow down and listen to a viewpoint that may differ from theirs. Until we start thinking differently we have no hope of ever regaining our democracy.

On Friday, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin joined Chuck Schumer, John Fetterman, and a few other Democrats in voting to avoid a government shutdown. The CR they voted in favor of shames me as an American. It scares me the lengths that are being taken to increase tax cuts for the wealthy and cut humane services for average and underrepresented Americans.

That said, it scares me far more -- and I believe it terrified the 10 Democratic senators who voted for the CR -- the idea that the government would be shut down for MONTHS, with only the executive branch in power.

Democrats (me included) have been shouting from the rooftops since November and especially since January about how the elected president longs for an autocratic government. If those 10 Democrats had not voted in favor of the bill they were given, they would have been handing that autocracy to Trump and Musk, without a fight at all.

This is not a checkers game, guys. This is chess. The moves MUST be strategic, and they cannot be short sighted. Real leaders are not reactors. They don't just do things to win votes. They take a long view and make strategic moves. Durbin joined the group with the long view. He was a leader, and I support and am grateful for his decision.

For all of you calling for him to step down/retire -- is that what you really want? People who are never willing to take a bold move? To do something that is unpopular? Not me.