If you’re keeping track of the media, Republicans shutting down the government are evil and those voting to reopen the government are moderates, while Democrats shutting down the government are principled warriors while those voting to reopen it are sellouts.

Democrats shut down the government for the optics rather than for any specific policy gains (despite all the whines about Obamacare) and they got what they wanted, victories nearly across the board in multiple elections and the perception that they have the wind at their backs in the midterms.

The problem is that for their base, the whole point of shutting down the government was to…