This is a good piece about Chuck Schumer’s impressive work as minority leader:

Yet Democrats give Mr. Schumer — song-belting, frequently badgering, endlessly frenzied — credit for his tireless attention to senators from every faction, and for quiet outreach to Republicans who he thinks could be partners down the line. He has worked carefully — far more than Mr. Reid, many Democrats agreed — to be almost relentlessly inclusive, talking with them at all hours of the day, over every manner of Chinese noodle, on even tiny subjects, to make them feel included in strategy. Recently, as he sat in a dentist’s chair waiting for a root canal, he dialed up Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to talk about a coming judiciary hearing concerning Donald Trump Jr. “I think he makes it look easier than it is,” Mr. Blumenthal said about Mr. Schumer.

Zero Democrats voting for any version of TrumpCare in either house might look inevitable in retrospect, but it’s harder than it looks.

And let’s give the individual red-state senators their due credit, too. Heidi Heitkamp represents a state Trump won by 36 points and was steadfast in opposition to TrumpCare. Joe Manchin represents a state Trump won by 42 points and is up for re-election in 2018 and was rock solid against TrumpCare from day 1. It’s easy to say that this should have been easy because TrumpCare would be particularly devastating for West Virgnia, only the state’s Republican senator didn’t give a damn. TrumpCare would have been really horrible for Nevada, too, and Heller is up in 2018, and he still folded like a $10 lawn chair. As you may have noticed, party polarization is substantial and accelerating, and every election counts.

In conclusion, the Republican Party should be ceded 70 or so votes in the Senate until people who agree with Brooklyn leftists about everything can be elected in jurisdictions like North Dakota and West Virginia.