Fifty-four young people got hauled out of Chuck Schumer's Washington office on Thursday for the crime of asking him to step up or step aside. Some of the protesters were children. All of them were chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, Schumer has got to go" inside the office of the man who, so far, has not gone.
Fifty-Four Arrests and a Bail Fund
According to The Guardian, a few hundred people from across the country joined the Sunrise Movement's sit-in at Schumer's DC office, including some from New York, the state he represents. The group says 54 were arrested. Capitol police were not immediately available for comment, which is the standard way of saying nothing while the cuffs do the talking.
Sunrise is now fundraising $24,000 on Instagram to cover bail and any legal fees. Their video of kids on the office floor chanting at the Senate minority leader has racked up more than 40,000 likes. That is a better engagement rate than most Senate Democrats have managed since 2016.
The signs were not subtle. "The filibuster kills." "Stop the climate crisis." "Schumer: Step up or step aside." You could not workshop a clearer message if you hired a consulting firm and paid them $400,000, which, to be fair, is how the party usually does it.
The Letter Every Senate Democrat Got
The protesters delivered a letter to Schumer arguing that "after a collective decade of Schumer leadership it was time for change." They also demanded that Democrats make ending the filibuster their first priority when Congress returns in January.
Then they did something smart. They dropped copies at the office of every single Senate Democrat. This was not a one-man hit. It was a notice to the whole caucus that the people who just voted for them are watching who they pick to lead.
Sunrise's campaigns director, Kidus Girma, says this is one of several actions planned over the next two weeks targeting Senate Democrats and "demanding they actually take action." So the arrests are not the climax. They are the opening bid.
The Caucus Is Already Cracking
Here's the thing. The kids are not shouting into a void. Several Democratic senators have said they will not back Schumer for the top job, including Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and members of the incoming freshman class like Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed and South Carolina's Annie Andrews.
Some are already lining up behind Maryland's Chris Van Hollen as the alternative. That includes Minnesota's senator-elect Peggy Flanagan and 50501, one of the major groups behind the No Kings protests. So there is a candidate, there is a coalition, and there is a vote coming.
Senate Democrats are reportedly wrestling with what feels like a clear mandate for anti-establishment voices from communities that have historically been shut out of federal office. Wrestling is generous. Nobody wrestles harder than a caucus trying to avoid the obvious.
Young Voters Showed Up, and They Brought a List
The timing is not an accident. Early data from Tufts University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement shows the November 3 elections drew the second-highest youth turnout for a midterm in 30 years. The only one higher was 2018, in Trump's first term.
So a generation turned out in historic numbers and handed Democrats a blue wave. Now they would like to know what the party plans to do with it. Girma put it plainly: "Chuck Schumer has been in office longer than I have been alive, and I'm 31 years old." He added that young people "didn't vote for a return to the Biden years, but rather a change."
Sunrise is not a bunch of outsiders yelling from the sidewalk, either. One of its co-founders, 36-year-old Will Lawrence, just won a Michigan House seat after campaigning against datacenters. The movement that got sat on in Nancy Pelosi's office in 2018 now has a member walking into Congress.
Second Sit-In This Week
This was not even the first time Schumer's office got occupied in the past few days. On Tuesday, three protesters were arrested during an action by the youth advocacy group Get Free. Executive director Nicole Carty said voters "need Democratic leaders to meet the moment lest we repeat history again."
Two sit-ins in three days, 57 arrests, and a pile of letters on every Democratic senator's desk. If the minority leader's office feels like a waiting room at the DMV for people who hate the minority leader, that is because it is.
The 2018 sit-in at Pelosi's office is the obvious comparison. That one helped launch the Green New Deal conversation. Sunrise has a track record of making senior Democrats uncomfortable and then watching the party's agenda drift in their direction.
The Dingo Take
You are being asked to believe that the same party that just rode record youth turnout to a blue wave should now hand the keys back to the guy who has run its Senate operation for a decade, and that the kids in handcuffs are the unreasonable ones. Say that out loud. It does not get better.
Schumer did not earn this chant by being a villain. He earned it by being the face of a caucus that treats the filibuster like a family heirloom while the planet cooks and the other side governs by fiat. Young voters looked at that and decided they would rather have a leader who wants to win than one who wants to preserve decorum. Fifty-four arrests later, nobody can claim the message was unclear.
The vote for majority leader is the real test. Sanders is out. Freshmen are out. Van Hollen has backers. If Senate Democrats look at this and decide the correct response is more of the same, they will have told an entire generation exactly how much their turnout was worth. Expect the next sit-in to be bigger, and expect it to be in somebody else's office.
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