By Michael Leppert
The Indiana Citizen
March 19, 2025
Sun Tzu, the former Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher, is known for his treatise, “The Art of War.” It’s remarkable how valuable the writings, believed to have been written in the 5th century BC, continue to be today. Forget the arguments about whether he is the one who wrote it and when. It doesn’t matter. The lessons are simple, and they still work.
I cannot recall a legislative decision as ridiculous as the one made Friday by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democratic Caucus he leads. After weeks of articulating the awful things contained in the Republican version of the budget continuing resolution, or CR, he abandoned his position at crunch time and chose to give it enough votes to pass. Democrats gained, let me count, zero things in exchange for their acquiescence.
Two days earlier, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, told NBC News, “Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on.” Apparently not for long.
One of Sun Tzu’s principles of war is to seize opportunity. Democrats failed that one.
They seized nothing by conceding to the Republicans here. Absolutely nothing. Schumer’s stated reasoning for caving was that a shutdown would create opportunity for the White House to do even more unconstitutional and damaging things. Donald Trump and Elon Musk weren’t asking congress for permission before Friday’s vote. Now that the shutdown has been averted, they still aren’t.
I think the mere existence of the filibuster is dumb, and I always have. The 60-vote necessity to proceed, particularly on CRs, served Republicans well throughout Joe Biden’s presidency. Likewise, it should have been used last week by the Democrats to either block the CR or to gain concessions by using it as leverage. It’s the reason it exists. Neither happened.
Worse yet, Schumer and the Democrats gave the Republican budget package ten votes, when all the concession required was seven. By giving the GOP three more votes than they needed, it gave Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, the freedom to vote no on the package for his personal, political reason that the package doesn’t reduce debt. That’s simply malpractice.
Author James Clear summarizes “The Art of War” in three sentences: “Know when to fight and when not to fight: avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak. Know how to deceive the enemy…Know your strengths and weaknesses: if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Applying that summary to this legislative battle that was never actually fought is simple. The time to fight was last week. The Republicans’ biggest weakness in Washington right now comes from the filibuster, which is where Democrats should have struck. There was no deception, just weakness. Finally, the Senate Democrats don’t know themselves—their constituency wanted to fight. They also don’t know their enemy—the concession is valueless to Trump. In short, they violated every principle of war that has been taught for twenty-five centuries.
Early talk of the mainstream media and corporate America “complying in advance” after the election are vacuous accusations compared to what Schumer’s team did last week. Consequently, his claim to leadership figuratively ended. Even his scheduled book tour set to begin this week was cancelled.
On Saturday, the Indiana Democratic Party chose its new chair, electing former State Sen. Karen Tallian to replace outgoing chair, Mike Schmuhl. By the time voting began, the five- or six-candidate race had been reduced to two, and Tallian wasn’t a unanimous choice. Good. I’m glad she had to earn it, and I wish even more people had run.
Democrats rooting for a different outcome took to social media over the weekend to complain about the result. I don’t understand the complainers—mainly because, as Sun Tzu would teach, knowing when to fight is important. That time was before the vote, not after.
Importantly, yes, I’ve seen Tallian fight in the past and I’m confident I will see it again. But I hope she realizes the crisis of government is now. Right now. It cannot wait until 2026 or 2028.
America’s historic norms are being obliterated in real time by a MAGA leadership team that has no use for them. Those norms won’t guide the nation through this war. It’s the art of war that should be the foundation of decision making until this darkness fades.
Sun Tzu wrote, “The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of courage which all must reach.” Democrats would be wise to accept that the willingness to fight is that standard.
Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com.The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
