It’s not easy giving up a good gig. I would know: In October I resigned from my job as the editorials editor of The Los Angeles Times, after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board, which I led, from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Leaving was a wrenching decision, but I felt there was too much at stake to stay and be silent — even in a job that I loved. The only way for me to take a stand was to step down.
I expected that I would get some attention, but I was unprepared for, and a bit embarrassed by, the outpouring of support from strangers across the country who lauded me as some sort of hero. I was grateful for the many kind words, but I had just quit a job, not rescued a baby from a burning building. The response showed me that people are desperate for examples of principle and sacrifice.
I also realized that stepping down from a leadership role isn’t a surrender. Sometimes it’s just the right thing to do. Which brings me to the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer.
Earlier this month, after he abruptly switched course to vote with Republicans on a government spending bill — after all but one House Democrat voted against it — many in his party, including his longtime ally, Representative Nancy Pelosi, and the rising star Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, didn’t hold back their criticism.
The frustration directed at New York’s senior senator, including from notable voices in the commentariat — he’s all but lost Jon Stewart — suggests this is about more than one vote. It could wind up being the final straw for Democrats exasperated by their party’s faltering response to the chaos unleashed by President Trump and Elon Musk since January. They’re tired of their leaders bringing a knife to a nuclear war.
The public overall isn’t much happier: A Fox News poll published last week found that 56 percent of voters think that “the job the Trump administration is doing identifying and cutting wasteful government spending” is “poor” or “only fair” and 65 percent say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned that “not enough thought and planning has gone into the government spending cuts.” Yet Democrats have managed to remain less popular than Mr. Trump: A March NBC News poll found that Mr. Trump has a 47 percent approval rating. And the Democrats? They are a whopping 20 percentage points behind.
As pressure for him to resign from leadership builds, Mr. Schumer said this week that he’s “not stepping down.” Maybe he’s feeling a bit like President Joe Biden did last summer. It’s not too late for him to stand aside. He should consider the benefits of proactive, principled resignation.
Stepping down from leadership could be an act of selflessness at a time when it is in short supply in Washington. Mr. Schumer could galvanize millions of rattled Americans by acknowledging that the political landscape has transformed so profoundly over the course of several weeks that it’s time for a new approach.
At some level, he must understand that the passive strategy he laid out in a recent Times Magazine interview — biding time until Mr. Trump’s popularity dips below 40 percent — isn’t reassuring to Americans worried that there might not even be free and fair elections the next time around.
So far, Mr. Schumer is digging in, and it’s understandable; too often in our history, leaders cling to power even after it’s clear their time is past or they’ve become ineffective.
“The strength of the tradition of loyalty and of keeping one’s conscience on a short leash becomes most evident during great public crises,” Thomas Franck and Edward Weisband wrote in 1974 for The Times in an article about the meaning of protest resignations, noting that “not one member of the Kennedy team quit in protest over the Bay of Pigs fiasco,” nor “did the moral issues of the Vietnam War drive any of the Johnson cabinet” to quit in public protest.
Of course, the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War were very different situations from what we’re facing today. The common denominator is that America is facing a true crisis that calls for more than paint-by-numbers leadership.
When those in power do resign, it’s often the result of being exposed for something embarrassing — we’ll see what happens with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after it was reported that he discussed a military strike in a Signal group chat — or unethical. Or out of pique, such as Kevin McCarthy sulkily abandoning his congressional seat in 2023 after his G.O.P. colleagues dumped him as speaker of the House.
Or they hold on out of stubbornness. Clearly, Mr. Biden waited too long to stand aside. Would the 2024 election have gone differently had he bowed out before the primaries and allowed other candidates more time to enter the field? We’ll never know.
Mr. Schumer would do better if he emulated John Boehner, the former Republican House speaker who gave up his gavel in 2015 rather than subject his caucus to a protracted leadership fight. Or even Mr. Schumer’s onetime opposite number, Mitch McConnell, who remains in the Senate but announced last year that he was stepping down as the Republican leader, realizing that age, temperament and ideology made him a poor fit to lead an increasingly Trumpist party going forward.
Resigning from leadership wouldn’t mean Mr. Schumer has to forfeit his ability to help Democrats regain power. Ms. Pelosi, the first woman ever to serve as House speaker, didn’t give up her status as a stateswoman when she stepped down from Democratic leadership in 2023, clearing the way for Representative Hakeem Jeffries to take over. That’s because she left honorably and on her own terms.
Mr. Schumer recently argued in a Times Opinion guest essay that his decision to vote for the spending bill was the better of only bad options. Give him credit for offering an explanation. But to many, his decision reflects a way of doing business that doesn’t meet the moment.
Instead of clinging to power, it would be edifying to see him set an example for his party and for the nation by stepping down and making way for new leadership.
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