Jen Rubin, I wish I knew how to quit you.
I thought you’d worked it out for us, really: You’d quit your old job at The Washington Post, where you held the “token RINO so appalled by Donald Trump you declared yourself an independent while spewing Democrat talking points” chair that most major print publications have to pretend to be balanced.
You’d started a Substack outlet called “The Contrarian,” which managed to be contrarian by the standards of Substack by echoing the same sorts of things you’d hear in the old Washington Post, which is why people started flocking to Substack in the first place.
Mission accomplished, I suppose, but that’s a one-way ticket to Irrelevancyville.
But you, Jen Rubin, are nothing if not Jen Rubin-esque. For where other RINOs make dishwater-tepid pronouncements about the state of our democracy to aid and abet the left, you’re willing to contort yourself into pretzels to defend your new asinine overlords.
For instance, you’re willing to go out and say that the Democrats who joined with the Republicans to end the government shutdown betrayed food stamp recipients by … effectively ensuring they’d get their food and wouldn’t go hungry.
No, seriously. Writing about the eight Senate Democrats who joined with 52 Republicans to begin the task of reopening the shuttered federal government, albeit without the Obamacare subsidies that precipitated this fight in the first place, Rubin stated that these “Neville Chamberlains” — i.e., appeasers of fascism, for those of you with a Common Core education — sold out hungry people by feeding them and unpaid government workers by paying them.
And social media laughed and remembered, for a moment, that Jen Rubin still existed and won’t ever change.
From her Tuesday piece, in which she argues there are no such thing as “moderates” but instead “fighters” and “defeatists” — the latter of which elected to open the government so that employees could get paid and recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (colloquially known as food stamps) could get their full benefits:
Was the government shutdown a failure?
The eight Neville Chamberlains who foolishly convinced themselves that caving for a vote (with a 60-vote margin, no less) with a reversal of reductions in force (RIFs), backpay (which the regime was legally obligated to do anyway), and a package of three appropriations bills (with no guarantee Donald Trump won’t pull a rescission) betrayed the thousands of government workers who have held out, the SNAP beneficiaries who have faced starvation, and the millions of Democrats who supported this fight. [Emphasis ours]
They have blurred the lines on the single best issue they have—healthcare—allowing a handful of Republicans to vote with them in December, knowing it will not reach 60 votes or pass the House.
Even if not pushing for this debacle, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s inability to hold his caucus is proof positive he is the wrong leader for this time. He would do well to consider handing over the reins to someone willing to fight.
It is hard to mount a credible effort to win back the Senate majority with him at the helm. Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Gary Peters of Michigan are retiring anyway, but have Democratic governors, so could do themselves and the party a favor by resigning now. If any of the others seek re-election in 2028 and beyond, they should expect ferocious primary challenges.
After the unnecessary, counterproductive, idiotic cave by these eight self-described “Senate moderate Democrats,” it is about time to ban that phrase. The term for those who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory would be “weak Democrats” or “useless Democrats” or simply “defeatists.” [Emphasis again ours]
I can hear Hakeem Jeffries on the phone with Mitch McConnell, George Will, or some other Republican establishmentarian right now: “You guys want her back? I promise you, clean CRs as far as the eye can see if you can just stop Jen Rubin from talking.”
Fellow Substacker, FiveThirtyEight founder, and wonk Nate Silver was the biggest name to note how stupid this was:
WARNING: The following post contains vulgar language that some readers will find offensive.
Give me a fucking break. I thought Democrats caving on the shutdown was dumb. And also, their whole shutdown strategy was dumb and reveals Schumer’s weakness.
But do you think furloughed government workers and SNAP recipients were *unhappy* that the shutdown ended? pic.twitter.com/NEAioZ7ssv
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 11, 2025
Of course, most of X chimed in to remind him this is what he gets for subjecting himself to Jen Rubin:
That’s some classic Jen Rubin https://t.co/D0BfxUduj3
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) November 11, 2025
Come on, you can’t take Jen Rubin seriously
— Mark D (@MarkedlyStupid) November 12, 2025
Wait, you read Jen Rubin? Why?
— Tom Riddle (parody) (@tomri33le) November 12, 2025
Alas, we do need to read Jen Rubin and take her seriously, because watch: This is going to be the line the Democrats use to force Chuck Schumer out and then try to force another shutdown.
This is the kind of thinking that drove us into this mess. The left’s pet health care initiative, Obamacare, has been held together with the governmental equivalent of Scotch Tape and twine — i.e., massive subsidies — since COVID-19 began.
The pandemic is over and so is the supposed reason for those subsidies. But, if they’re not continued until the end of time, the program’s sustainability-proof nature will expose itself to the average insurance consumer.
Thus, hungry people needed to starve so that Republicans would cave and feed them. Families who are dependent on the federal government for their salaries needed to go unpaid so that the GOP would beg for mercy and they could pay their bills. The term “America held hostage” has been used metaphorically numerous times in the past, but this time it was basically literal: Support our broken program or this family starves.
Forget whether or not this actually caused anyone to starve. Jen Rubin comes out and says: “YES! Finally!” And when eight Democrats come to their senses and realize they weren’t going to get the subsidies in the continuing resolution, Rubin calls not forcing people into penury or hunger by prolonging the inevitable “snatch[ing] defeat from the jaws of victory.” (Please hit the subscribe button to The Contrarian, though, where for the low price of $70 a year you too can keep food on Jen Rubin’s table and keep reading deep thoughts like this.)
It’s utter lunacy — and, at the same time, the perfect distillation of Trump Derangement Syndrome that led to this needless waste of political capital and federal resources. Nice work.
Rubin isn’t the only person calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s head over the vote, although her take is, by far, the dumbest. In fact, I’d almost argue she’s done more for the Republican Party with this single column than she’s ever did when she was an official member. Maybe I’m kinda glad I didn’t quit Jen Rubin, after all.
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