There’s an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer hires an intern from New York University, tasking the student with a variety of chores vaguely related to his harebrained money-making schemes. The school’s dean calls Kramer into her office to explain what kind of business training he’s offering. He’s unable to do so, and the dean terminates the internship.
“Well, I have to say, this seems capricious and arbitrary,” Kramer replies, standing up in outrage.
“Your fly is open,” says the dean.
Democrats in Congress have been walking around with their flies open, so to speak, since Donald Trump retook office a year ago, unable to effectively counter the president’s authoritarian agenda either in their capacity as legislators or through any coherent messaging. The party’s approval rating has plummeted as a result, hitting a record low last summer.
The Trump administration’s deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota has provided an opportunity for Democrats to step up and say they’re not going to vote to fund a government that is killing its own citizens unless something is done about ICE.
Senate Democrats released a list of demands for new ICE restrictions last week, before reaching a deal with Republicans to fund the government through the end of the year — except for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, the funding for which was extended only to Feb. 13. Democrats in both chambers were upset that their leadership wasn’t cracking down harder on ICE, and now the prospect looms of extending DHS funding for another few weeks in order to avoid a shutdown. “You killed two American citizens in two and a half weeks,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said in response to the idea. “We don’t have time for you to mess around.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffreis (D-N.Y.) this week released a new list of ICE restrictions they say Republicans must agree to before Democrats agree to fund DHS. The list includes measures like mandatory body cameras, prohibiting racial profiling, and barring enforcement at sensitive locations like churches and schools, but to the chagrin of progressives does not call for reversing the ICE funding boon included in last year’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. Republicans have pushed back against the list of demands as a whole and Schumer and Jeffries appear to be softening further — at least on their demand that ICE agents stop wearing masks.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Jeffries is now saying masks are acceptable as long as they are not worn in a manner that is, as Jeffries put it, “arbitrary and capricious,” echoing Kramer when he grew upset he would no longer have an intern. Schumer seemed to agree, saying that masks should only be worn in “extraordinary” circumstances, per the Times. Schumer said on MSNOW earlier in the day that masks should only be worn in the “most unusual” of circumstances.
Of course, what constitutes “unusual,” “extraordinary,” or “arbitrary and capricious” is subjective, and one could certainly see the Trump administration arguing that the situation in Minnesota constitutes all of these things.
Democrats have until the end of next week to work out a deal on ICE restrictions, and though both the White House and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have said there’s room to negotiate, Democratic leadership hasn’t inspired much confidence they’ll be able to effectuate the kind of real reform most Americans, and plenty of the party’s own lawmakers, feel are necessary to rein in the administration’s out-of-control immigration enforcement.
Americans enraged over Trump’s first year back in office deserve a formidable opposition party. Instead, they’ve been stuck with a feckless group of establishment politicians, walking around with their flies down as the president tears the country apart.
