My speculation in a blogpost yesterday that Senate Democrats were willing to vote for a government shutdown on the DACA issue because of their great solidarity, built up for many years since their narrow capture of seven Senate seats in 1986, has been vindicated by their surrender on the shutdown today — sort of.

My argument was based on what was, in my view, the serious political weakness of their position, portrayed even in much of mainstream media as blocking funding for the government in favor of legalizing certain illegal immigrants. To maintain near total cohesion, in such circumstances, seemed to me a considerable achievement.