By Ian McLean

US Government building (image: Unsplash)

Following historic wins in New York City, Virginia and New Jersey, the Democrats were seen as unstoppable. That was, until the government shutdown vote on November 12, 2025.

When the shutdown happened, the Democrats held firm and stated that they were fighting to protect extended healthcare subsidies included in the Affordable Care Act.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said: "no fucking way” they would give up in a video posted on his social media. This was the attitude repeated by nearly all democrats as the months went on.

They promised they would not give up on protecting the subsidies.

So, what promises made Senators Tim Kaine, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassen, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, John Fetterman and the Democratic Whip, reopen the government? The promise of a vote sometime down the line on protecting extended healthcare subsidies.

The big problem here is the promise of a vote amounts to nothing in the current makeup of America’s legislative system.

Let’s break down the issue: If this bill made it through the Republican controlled senate, it would then need to make it through the Republican controlled House of Representatives then even if that miracle happens, the question remains: who gets the final say? The president. The Republican MAGA-in-chief himself, President Donald J Trump. Now if the first stage of these promised steps isn’t inconceivable enough, the man who fought Obama Care so hard is not going to approve a bill which protects the subsidies.

This move turned the incredibly positive support they had on its head, with many voters, TV personalities and the other members of the Democrat party who stood firm now stating that Chuck Schumer is no longer fit to lead Senate Democrats.

There might be a political motivation for why these Democrats chose to do this, as coincidentally all seven senators are not up for re-election in 2026.

While this is speculation, as the senators that broke the democratic line gave their reasons for voting yes, something else may have happened here…

This gives Chuck Schumer the perfect scapegoat for ending the shutdown while protecting the ‘vulnerable’ democrats who would still be standing and fought for so long. Effectively ending the shutdown but not to end up with mud on their faces.

This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. In the political arena, backroom deals like this, where people will take the blame for the party, happens more often than you think.

Even in the UK, we have had numerous scapegoats, some of them being extremely notable historic figures. Neville Chamberlain was scapegoated during the build-up to World War 2 for his appeasement policies in his attempts to avoid another World War.

This move by the democrats is likely the most recent case of this, they lose nothing if none of the senators are facing the public again. This allows the party to disavow them without any true damage to themselves.

How do they pick themselves up from this? Can they even recover from this mistake?

The best-case scenario would be Schumer resigning as the leader of the democrats and someone more progressive or younger stepping up in his place.

It’s clear there’s ever growing support for progressives in America with the increasing turnouts for the No Kings protests and Zohran Mamdani, an unapologetically left of centre socialist, winning one of the most important American cities mayoral races.

This is also a mirror of the only way forward for British politics as we’re seeing the rise of ‘Your Party’ and more evidently Zack Polanski’s Green party becoming the third biggest party in the UK for the first time.

The only way the ‘leaders of the free world’ are going to defeat the rise of the extreme far right is if strong, progressive and unapologetic leaders are elected. Those that care about student finances, keeping borders open for immigration and snuff out the Islamophobia, xenophobia and blatant racism is the only way forward to protect us all.

How the US Government Shutdown vote made Democrats the losers