A lot of struggling Americans are caught between Schumer and Trump | Opinion

The government shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of Democrats. After getting shellacked at the polls in 2024, they’ve been desperate for an issue to drag them out of electoral purgatory — and the expiring Obamacare subsidies handed them one.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t see a crisis. He sees a campaign opportunity.

So he shut the government down.

For Schumer, suffering is the strategy. The U.S. military goes unpaid and federal workers are furloughed. And if he can drag the shutdown out until November 1 when millions of low-income Americans lose SNAP benefits and families discover their health premiums are doubling, then the pain becomes the message, and the misery becomes the campaign ad.

If I were President Donald Trump, I’d sign executive orders on October 31 that would extend the Obamacare subsidies and fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, forcing Democrats back to Washington with their tails between their legs. And as a bonus, it could nudge GOP candidates ahead in the tight New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races.

A true October surprise!

Of course, none of this would be legal. Under the Constitution, Congress alone holds the power to appropriate funds. But that doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Trump has been issuing executive orders like Halloween candy — stripping constitutional rights (due process), defying the Supreme Court (flag burning) — and no one blinks. Congress shrugs. His supporters cheer.

That’s the real problem. These self-proclaimed patriots don’t care about the rule of law — they care about the spectacle. Every overreach, every norm that is shattered, feels to them like “owning the left.” Millions share AI-generated videos of Trump as a “king,” laughing as he drops feces on protesters, mistaking cruelty for courage and authoritarian fantasy for patriotism.

It’s not trolling — it’s a movement that’s transitioned into a cult.

I often wonder how our forefathers would react to this kind of idolatry.

My grandfather was a machinist in the Navy during World War II. He was aboard the USS Missouri when Japan formally surrendered. To him — and to that entire generation — fascism, dictatorships and personality cults weren’t political buzzwords. They were the enemy.

Members of this generation watched their friends die to preserve democracy against authoritarianism. Seeing Americans now celebrate the idea of a “king” feels like spitting in their faces and on their graves.

Those men fought to defend freedom. Today’s Republicans mock it. The same party that once claimed to stand for liberty now laughs at the very people exercising it — sneering at the 7 million Americans who showed up to more than 2,600 No Kings protests across the country.

No one should assume those protesters were just Democrats and that it makes no difference. While MAGA’s core stays loyal, many Americans are buckling under the weight of this administration’s failures.

Farm bankruptcies in the 12 months that ended in June were up 56% from the prior year. The job market is the worst it’s been in decades. The housing market is in crisis. Inflation is eating up paychecks.

Meanwhile, Trump is demolishing the East Wing of the White House to build a $300 million ballroom funded by private donors, demanding $230 million of taxpayer money in “compensation” from the Justice Department and proposing a $40 billion bailout to Argentina.

It’s self-indulgent, tone-deaf and utterly disconnected from Americans who are struggling.

Still want to dismiss those 7 million protestors? Keep in mind two things.

Trump won the popular vote by fewer than 2.3 million votes, and the No Kings rallies weren’t confined to blue cities. Protests happened in places Trump won by wide margins — like rural parts of Iowa. That’s not noise. That’s the ground shifting beneath him.

History shows that when just 3.5% of a population participates in protests, they’ve never failed to bring about change. The people that protested Saturday represented around 4.6% of those who voted in the last presidential election.

That’s not a good sign for MAGA.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned Republicans to take the protests seriously, and he’s right.

If the GOP doesn’t wake up, the losses next November won’t just be staggering — they’ll be historic. But hey, at least they will still have those AI videos to laugh at and share.

Matt Wylie is a South Carolina-based Republican political strategist and analyst with over 25 years of experience working on federal, state and local campaigns.