There is a concept in con games called “cooling the mark out.” After the “mark” (victim) has realized he’s been had he must be convinced that he shouldn’t exact any revenge, like calling the cops. It’s the exit strategy in a long con.
You will recall that moment in The Sting (1973) after Robert Redford and Paul Newman had succeeded in stealing the $500,000 from Robert Shaw in the gambling den, but then stage a fake shooting and FBI raid to convince the gangster (Shaw) to flee the scene of the “murder.”
We’ve seen something of the same thing play out over the past few days regarding the “betrayal” of Chuck Schumer and moderate Senate Democrats on ending the “shutdown.”
The whole staged “outrage” thing has already died off, even before the shutdown has actually ended.
From the Associated Press (AP),
Schumer faces criticism as shutdown nears end, but his job appears safe.
His job was never in doubt. From an MSNBC report last Thursday evening,
After weeks of different Democrats taking different shutdown approaches — some voting with Republicans, some talking with GOP lawmakers about a bipartisan deal and some holding out completely — Democrats emerged from an hourslong closed-door meeting on Thursday advocating a new strategy: unity.
What that unity means, in practice, is unclear.
A telling detail from MSNBC,
“Our goal is to try to all stay together as much as we can,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said as Democrats met.
Asked what the next steps are, however, Murphy reported that he didn’t have “much more to say.”
MSNBC noted at the time,
Across the ideological spectrum, Democrats struck the same tone over and over again: unified in message, vague on mechanics.
“We’re unified on how we’re moving forward,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told reporters.
“It was an encouraging caucus, because there’s a great deal of unity,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said.
“I feel like we’re very unified,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., told reporters. “I’m excited to see what we can put together here.”
Despite Thursday night’s coyness, the plan has now been fully revealed. The 100 percent unity on display Thursday was all around the plan to stage a fake “rebellion” and put up the bare minimum number of votes to end the shutdown.
The anticipated firestorm followed, but was carefully managed to do no real damage.
Don’t get me wrong, there really is a civil war raging within the Democratic party between progressives and moderates. Progressives will win in the long run and dinosaurs like Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will soon be gone and soon forgotten.
But the past week’s shutdown Kabuki theater had nothing to do with any of that. The con was over, energized Democratic voters (the marks) had turned out last Tuesday to power an unexpectedly large victory. But the election was over and a quick end to “shutdown” needed to be engineered.
Back to today’s AP report,
No senator has explicitly called for his resignation as leader, and his job appears safe despite the criticism from outside.
They were all in on the con.
Fool me once, shame on you.
