What Does Collaboration Look Like?

A Saturday Prompt

(A video screenshot)

On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Hitler’s Germany and soon abandoned its liberal government. This surrender followed the German invasion of France the previous month on May 10. The French parliament voted in Marshal Philippe Pétain to lead the collaboration with the Nazis. Conducting his business from the French town of Vichy, Pétain carried out the fascist, murderous, antisemitic desires of the Nazis and indeed many of France’s own people. It wasn’t until 1995 that a French president fully acknowledged this collaboration when Jacques Chirac admitted that "the French government had given support to the criminal madness of the occupiers."

In the last few days, the term Vichy Democrats has been bandied about, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine other Democrats (including Independent Sen. Angus King) decided to join with the Republicans to pass the stopgap spending bill on Friday. Rather than fighting back against the expanding executive power of Donald Trump and Elon Musk—and all the Republicans who applaud the egregious stripping away of Congressional spending and programs amid a government shutdown—Congress passed this bill which increases Trump’s power to reallocate money by removing numerous funding directives. The bill, funding federal operations through September, passed 54-46.

To justify his collaboration—a switch from his previous commitment to reject the bill—Schumer insisted a shutdown would have been “a far worse option.” He said, "A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.” Added Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, “I’m outraged by the reckless actions of President Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans in control of Congress, so I refuse to hand them a shutdown where they would have free rein to cause more chaos and harm.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez provided one of the sharpest voices of opposition, furious over the surrender of Schumer and the other Democrats. “This is about deep cuts to Social Security. Medicare, Medicaid,” she said. “This is about the evisceration of the federal government, this is about codifying the looting that is happening at the behest of Elon Musk in order to pay for his tax breaks for billionaires, and we have a responsibility to stand up to it.” She also said about the collaboration, “I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.”

No Democrat, indeed no decent human, would disagree that a government shutdown would cause a great deal of pain as government workers would lose paychecks and the closure of government services deemed non-essential would disrupt and endanger the lives of many Americans. But I would argue that Sen. Schumer and the other cooperating Democrats have failed to grasp the gravity and the demands of this moment.

America is facing an existential crisis. This is a fight for the survival of our democracy. Yes, a government shutdown is a terrible thing, but it would have created the conditions for a real fight against the intolerable and quickening plummet into oligarchy and fascism. The surrender also fails to recognize the useful role that public protests would have played during a shutdown to push back against the Republicans.

Here are the names of the Democratic senators who joined Schumer in the fearful decision to avoid the necessary confrontation with the rampaging Republicans: John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Gary Peters of Michigan, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen both of New Hampshire, and Angus King of Maine (an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats).

So here’s today’s prompt: What does collaboration look like? Do you think Chuck Schumer is the courageous one because he agreed, as he put it, to “take the bullets” in order to keep the government open? Are the other Democratic senators also courageous for going along with the Republicans? Or do you believe that this is a moment in which avoiding risk and collaborating with the Trump regime makes matters worse, never mind the short-term consequences? And do you think that the result of this vote increases the need of everyday Americans to take more collective action and not rely on elected officials to solve this historic assault?

As always, I look forward to your observations and the opportunity for this community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks. Trolling will not be tolerated.

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