Pro-Crypto Democrats Think You’re Stupid
Photo by DHSgov
Trump’s crypto corruption is so cartoonish that even crypto bros spotted it instantly when he launched his shitcoin back in January, yet the pro-crypto caucus of Senate Democrats cannot reach the level of integrity and outrage established by a bunch of 20 somethings who spend their lives trading dog coins. On Monday, The American Prospect reported on a hopeful development in the hopeless Democratic Senate caucus, where Sen. Angela Alsobrooks told them that she would not advance the GENIUS Act until the Democrats got further commitments on it. This Republican bill, endorsed by Democrats Ruben Gallego, Andy Kim, Mark Warner and Lisa Blunt Rochester as well, is supposedly designed to regulate stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar, but when the president of the United States is getting bribes from the United Arab Emirates in his own personal stablecoin, that gives you an idea of what these things are primarily used for (they are also used for gambling on dog coins).
Turns out that the crypto caucus in the Democratic Party just wanted to buy themselves some time to find a way to put on a show pretending that they actually care about the inherent corruption of stablecoins. The American Prospect published a follow up story yesterday, detailing what one source with knowledge of the process told them was “Schumer 101.”
Schumer 101 boils down to treating voters like they are stupid. The crypto Dems held up the GENIUS Act so Chuck Schumer and Jeff Merkley could introduce the End Crypto Corruption Act, a fig leaf of a bill they and anyone else with a basic knowledge of how Senate majorities work knew would never pass. Democratic sponsors of the GENIUS Act like the aforementioned five Democrats who think you’re stupid, along with Kirsten Gillibrand, Catherine Cortez Masto, Cory Booker and Elissa Slotkin supported this new bill designed to fail, and after giving up their leverage, they got it as a standalone vote as an amendment to the GENIUS Act.
These pro-crypto Democrats will now tell you that they tried very hard to stop the inherent corruption within the GENIUS Act, without actually trying. David Dayen of The American Prospect believes that Sen. Merkley is “sincere in his effort and who wasn’t part of this deal,” and Merkley released a statement saying, “This is the right moment to have anti-corruption provisions included in the GENIUS Act.” Had Senate Democrats stuck to their initial position of holding the bill up, they had a much better chance to insert anti-corruption provisions with real teeth into the act, but unfortunately for Merkley, he seems to be the only one in this mess who was sincere in his efforts to accomplish that.