Reporter’s Notebook: Government shutdown fight reveals deep Democratic party divisions

It’s often hard to separate the noise from the signal in politics.

The noise is that congressional Democrats are fighting President Donald Trump and Republicans over a prospective government shutdown and healthcare spending.

The signal is scratchy. But if you turn the squelch knob, you may detect the signal.

We won’t know who “wins” or is “blamed” for a government shutdown for weeks. But the government shutdown will likely tell us a great deal about the future of the Democratic Party.

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Progressives excoriated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in March when he reluctantly provided Democratic votes to break a filibuster to avoid a government shutdown.

Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill were apoplectic. They felt betrayed by Schumer. The New York Democrat caved to Republicans to avert the shutdown without pocketing any political concessions in return. At the time, Schumer said a shutdown under those conditions would be worse. Elon Musk was busy filleting the federal government. To hear Schumer tell it, Musk may try to block parts of the federal government from ever opening again.

Progressives fumed at Schumer. Some called for new leadership.

“There was a disappointment because Schumer had said that he was going to vote against it, and then he voted for it,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., to Fox. “So there was some confusion about why he would do that.”

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Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speak at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other top Democrats seethed about Schumer’s March move. A senior House Republican source told Fox recently that they were stunned the government didn’t close earlier this year — surprised at Schumer’s decision to cave.

And so liberals thought that Schumer may have overstayed his welcome, and it was time to move on.

Schumer didn’t provide the necessary votes to avoid a shutdown when the Senate took a test vote to clear the way for the…