Chuck Schumer did right by America AND the Democratic Party in keeping gov’t open

Sen. Chuck Schumer did what he thought right for the country and his party in avoiding a government shutdown last week; naturally, the selfish showboaters are slamming him for it.

He quite rightly saw it would be a triple loss for the Democratic Party, had Senate Democrats used the filibuster to stop the bill to fund the government through September.

• People would get hurt, as they do in any shutdown.

• Most voters would blame the Democrats.

• And a shutdown would’ve further empowered President Donald Trump’s drive to close agencies and fire federal workers, an effort that Schumer’s progressive critics join in despising.

The left’s course was wrong on tactics, strategy and its own principles; all it would have “won” was a chance to wallow in supposed moral purity — which it still gets to do now by denouncing Schumer.   

Look: The latest polling for Newsweek and CNN shows Democrats with their lowest public approval in decades, well under 30%; less than one American in 10 strongly approves of the party.

Playing exclusively to that 10% can only dig Dems a deeper hole with everyone else.

Schumer sees that; his critics either won’t admit it, or just don’t care.