An Open Letter to Senator Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries:
I want to start by thanking you for your many years of service to your constituents in New York and the nation as House and Senate leaders and elected officials. During your time in Congress to date, you have had successes that have helped the American people. We thank you for those successes.
However, you have also made decisions in the era of Trump that have hindered us greatly. Under your leadership, and giving credit where credit is due, along with former Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, you have also immensely damaged democracy.
You have shown us, the American people, that you are not able to rise to the occasion for the current crisis facing our great country, the United States of America. Your thinking on leadership remains in the past, your communication style remains in the past, and your thinking remains in the past.
In leadership, you still believe, and operate, under the old rules and norms of your offices. No, none of us who voted for change this past Tuesday, want the Democrats to act like the Republicans across the country and in the White House. You still seem to believe the Republicans have the best interests of the American people in mind, even when their daily actions show us otherwise. You still seem to believe you can reach across the aisle and work with current elected officials, when that ship has sailed for the foreseeable future. You still seem to believe the Republicans will keep their word when they have shown you time and time again their word is meaningless.
In communication style, you are operating as if it is still 1999. You seem to not realize the impact of social media like YouTube, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and SnapChat. For example, both of you appear to have Tik Tok accounts, but neither of you seem to use them effectively or consistently. Senator Schumer, you post as if it is traditional media rather than active engaging content. Minority Leader Jeffries, by all accounts your use of Tik Tok seems to essentially be non-existent. You’re still of the mindset that a strongly worded letter has impact. You still seem to think people are reading the daily newspaper, tuning into the nightly evening news, or watching the Sunday news programs. Plus your use of language and vernacular is immediately tuned out by a wide swath of voters, for better or for worse.
In thinking, you both seem a bit tone deaf in what people want. You consistently misinterpret, and seem to be repeating this mistake for the Blue Tsunami that occurred on Tuesday, that the mandate is to go back to business as usual. That we voters want you to work with Republicans and this White House regime. That we voters don’t want Medicare for All or other universal healthcare, or that we don’t want ICE abolished.
You both seem to believe you know what is best for us when we just swept the nation, across the election board, because we want both relief for kitchen table issues AND accountability. Minority Leader Jeffries, you are correct we don’t want to get even, but we most definitely want accountability regardless of position held in Congress, the Executive Branch, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Because you aren’t paying attention. Because you don’t understand the modern era’s communication style. Because you are traditionalists, yearning for a bygone era. Because of all these things, you need to put your ego’s aside, recognize you aren’t up to the leadership needs of the times, both of you should state you are stepping aside to let the next generation of Democrats lead us through the times we are living in now. If you don’t, you will squander the opportunity given to Democrats, to once again snatch defeat from the hands of victory, and cost Democrats not only state houses and Congress in 2028, but also the White House.
Is that what you are working towards happening?
We, the American people, voted you in to address the following things:
- Accountability, not revenge. We want to see and believe no one is above the law, not even the president or a Supreme Court Justice.
- Reductions in everyday living expenses, such as gas, electricity, and food.
- Ending foreign aid to Israel, and other nations using the aid to buy military equipment.
- Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect everyone’s right to vote.
- Commonsense immigration policy, not open borders, but a timely and reasonable way to become a U.S. Citizen and seasonal worker passes; abolishing ICE and starting over with clear and concise language of what an Immigration (and Border Patrol) may and may not do in the lines of duty.
- Universal healthcare for basic health, dental, visual, and mental health needs.
- Increase in the federal minimum wage.
- True, meaningful, and effective regulation of social media, AI, and data centers.
- Protection of our personal data.
- Expanding the U.S. Supreme Court, adding term limits, and ethics reforms with teeth.
- Federal insider trading elimination for elected officials.
- Closing all loopholes, enshrining norms into law, and refining/revising/eliminating any laws that the White House Regime has used to justify their actions and ignoring guardrails.
- Releasing and indicting those in the Epstein files who raped, among other things, children—boys and girls.
The list of things that need to happen is long. Priorities must be set with accountability, kitchen table issues, and healthcare costs as top of the list. There must be a steady progression of action, regardless of whether a law might be vetoed or bipartisan. The needs of the American people, and America as a whole, must take precedence over the billionaires and even Democratic donors.
If the above priorities aren’t fought for by Democrats in general, and leadership specifically, voters will just swing it back to Republicans during the next election to most likely include the presidency.
Senator Schumer and Minority Leader Jeffries, I ask and urge you, for the first time in your lives, place the country and the Democratic Party above your ego. Please step out of contention for leadership. Let those who know how to lead, how to communicate, and how to think like the American people step into the roles of Majority Leaders in the Senate and the House.
You have had your days of glory, now it is time for a new generation to have theirs.
Sincerely,
The American People
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