Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Protesters Camp Out in Senator Chuck Schumer’s Capitol Hill Office, November 14, 2016
The corrupt and collapsing two-party political system in the U.S. is coming under renewed attack by the young generation. Trump Tower in New York City, where Republican President-elect Donald Trump is holed up, has become a veritable police fortress at street level with much of the sidewalk area barricaded from pedestrian traffic. Progressive protesters have been regularly massing outside of the building since Trump’s win in the presidential election on November 8. Many of their posters read: “Not My President.”
But yesterday, young progressive protesters targeted the Capitol Hill office of a sitting Democratic Senator, Chuck Schumer of New York. As two of his clerks attempted to look unruffled and busied themselves behind their computers, about two dozen young people marched into Schumer’s office singing this song: “We are standing for our future, we are hearing what is wrong, we are standing for our future, and together we are strong.” Members of the group then delivered a series of passionate speeches providing details on what they see as corrupt within the Democratic Party. Chuck Schumer, with his obscene levels of campaign financing coming directly from Wall Street, made the top of the list. The protesters delivered a message to Schumer’s office, since he failed to appear in person, to step aside as the potential heir to the Senate Minority Leader slot and let Senator Bernie Sanders take the helm.
A number of the speakers blamed Schumer, as the titular Senate head of what they called the Wall Street Democrats, for the loss to Trump in the election because his defection to Wall Street overlords had sent the message to the working class that they could not trust the Democratic Washington establishment.
The grassroots group behind the protest, All of Us, is asking others to sign their petition to oust Schumer from consideration to lead the Senate Democrats. Their rationale reads:
“Donald Trump won by channeling anti-establishment anger and worry about long-term economic decline, and pointing the blame at people of color and immigrants. He sold his supporters a racist lie, and gave them an outlet for their rage at a broken system. The only way to stop his disastrous policies now, and beat the Republicans in 2018 and 2020, is through a vision of our own that acknowledges that the system is broken and places the blame where it belongs—with Wall Street, the big corporations, and a political establishment that is beholden to them.
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