I'll preface this by saying I'm not American

Both of these men have had several moments in the last few years when I thought they mean well, and it's quite wholesome to see grampa Schumer get all enthusiastic about fighting fire with fire every now and then

But the fact of the matter is that Schumer is too old for this sort of rough water and that neither of these are the loudest voice in their party and not even in their respective chambers. I think AOC speaks up easily ten more often than Jeffries, for example. I hardly hear anything from him.

What complicates matters here is the oddity of having the House and Senate leaders quit when their party just won so decisively. The Dems being such a big tent makes it hard for an uninformed person to see that while the Dems won, the style and direction of Schumer and Jeffries did not, and that they're not suitable leaders in a time of crysis. Things need to be fixed without relying on bipartisanship or the mercy of your opponent, because the GOP, from where I see it, never gives an inch. But I assume the Dems don't want to make it look like there's already instability within their party, fresh after a win, which is ironic, because Schumer and Jeffries not quitting on their own terms may lead to a nasty leadership challenge.

I don't know if Jeffries, but certainly Schumer, much like Biden, seems to be melancholic for the better days of the pre-Trump era, when the worst of the worst did very much exist in the GOP but were less dominant or less prone to breaking the law to impose their awful views. I do frequently see Americans online say they'd rather have Bush, Romney or McCain back than have Trump. I agree. Those were... tolerable. They were certainly less corrupt.

Older senators like Schumer seem to yearn for news headlines of unity and pride. But that's just not possible right now. These next few years are not the time for unity. They're a time for justice, reform and securing democracy.

Most GOP members simply don't even belong in politics, to state the obvious (Hegseth...) and have only bad intentions. In my own country I tend to think of seats that are occupied by the far-right opposition as vacant, because they're simply impossible to reason with