Politics & Power Quote by Charles Schumer

“Chattering class” is a cheap shot with an expensive purpose: it shrinks the universe of legitimate critics down to a clique of pundits, then invites “the American people” to stand on the other side with him. Schumer’s line isn’t trying to win an argument about earmarks; it’s trying to win jurisdiction over who gets to define what matters.

The phrasing is doing heavy lifting. “Let me say this” signals a performance of straight talk, as if he’s cutting through nonsense rather than participating in it. “Little tiny” and “porky” are both a concession and a dismissal: yes, there are amendments that smell like pork, but they’re small, trivial, basically a distraction. That double move is classic political inoculation. Acknowledge the charge, minimize the damage, redirect attention to the supposedly larger stakes of the bill.

The subtext is a rebuke to process journalism, the kind that obsesses over legislative minutiae and insider games. Schumer is betting that voters experience politics less as a spreadsheet of amendments and more as a gut-level question: does anything in Washington help me? By claiming “the American people really don’t care,” he’s not reporting polling data so much as issuing a demand about narrative. Stop litigating the sausage-making; judge us on the meal.

Contextually, this is the language of a leader trying to protect a coalition. “Chattering class” also warns fellow Democrats not to get spooked by media scolding. It’s a reminder that outrage cycles are loud, not always large - and that power depends on choosing which criticisms to dignify and which to treat as background noise.