Why start something that you don't have the guts to follow through with? Why grab defeat from the jaws of victory? Barely a week after the best election night Democrats have had in years, with the president's approval ranking hitting new lows, with voters deserting him on the economy and immigration, what do Democrats do? They cave, or at least eight of them did. By carefully (self?) selecting to include no one who is up for re-election (and two who are retiring), they gave the president the victory he wanted, and he claimed.

Why did they do it?

Because the country was blaming the Democrats? That dog don't hunt. Republicans control the White House, the Executive Branch, the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. If your check doesn't come, how can it be the fault of the powerless Democrats? The polls were showing the public putting the blame on Republicans. Even President Donald Trump was showing pressure, beginning to lean on Republicans. As for the pain, it wasn't the Democrats still running to the Supreme Court, so they won't have to provide full food stamps this month. It wasn't the Democrats insisting that air traffic controllers not be paid, and that air traffic had to be curtailed. This was Trump's shutdown; Obamacare subsidies should have been the price Trump had to pay to end it, until Democrats let him off the hook.

Do we get brownie points for being responsible? For avoiding the hardships of a continued shutdown?

I wouldn't count on it. Clearly, Democrats aren't counting on it, or they might have included among the number of defectors some who would be up in another year. The fact that Democrats are plainly worried about the wrath of Democrats (let alone future primary challenges) tells you everything that is wrong about this vote to reopen the government.

Was there ever an endgame other than this? The White House and the Republicans had only two alternatives, other than to let the shutdown drag on. One, that they claimed they didn't have the votes for, was to jam legislation through the Senate which would have gotten rid of the long-treasured filibuster, so that a bare majority could reopen the government. That would not do the Democrats any good, that is, until and unless they recapture the Senate. The second would have been to cut a deal with Democrats on the Obamacare subsidies, the path the Democrats proposed last week, and Republicans soundly rejected.

Consideration of the possible end games leads to a brick wall. If there was no endgame, why start the game in the first place? Why play the game if the inevitable ending is that you lose?

Some of my Democratic friends, trying to make the best of what is a trying situation, argue that the Group of Eight did what was right for the country, if not for partisan politics. Were we really prepared to sit back and watch families go hungry to score political points? Were we really prepared for air traffic to dwindle to a trickle - what was being promised, or threatened — with all the economic and human costs that would bring? Someone had to do the right thing, and end the insanity, before even more federal workers get fired, more programs people rely on get cut, the bureaucracy grinds down and people suffer as a result.

The skies are not too safe, the air is not too clear, the food supply is not too clean, and we need a government that works, not one that is shut down while the girls and boys fight it out politically. Who will be blamed for the shutdown, who will get credit for its end, and whether that blame or credit will matter in the long run remains to be seen. The one thing this week's move is sure to stoke is the frustration with the leadership, or lack thereof, of the national Democratic party. Poor Chuck Schumer. There's no explaining this one on late night tv. They don't get it either.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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