Our U.S. Senator, Chuck Schumer, has come under some fairly heavy criticism in the past couple of weeks over his decision to not let the government default.

The criticisms were framed primarily by those in his own party who believed that the decision would further enable the President in his efforts at dismantling the federal government. This impression was magnified when the President, himself, thanked Schumer for lending support to the Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government running through September.

I am not entirely a disinterested observer in all of this, since many years ago I served with Senator Schumer when he was an Assemblyman in the New York State Assembly. While there, and in his subsequent roles in the Congress of the United States, I have found him to be honest and pragmatic in his approach to government. He also, despite having had big responsibilities in Washington, has paid attention to his Upstate New York constituents and visits each county of the state every year.

But, to get back to Senator Schumer’s decision to support the CR, I thought it made both substantive and political sense. Substantively, a government shutdown on top of all of the chaos associated with the dismantling of government and layoffs that have been going on under the leadership of the President and Elon Musk would have been devastating for the country.

On the political side of things, though more liberal members of his party wanted him to stand up to Trump and shut down the government, Schumer made the pragmatic decision that to do that would just heap political criticism on the Democrats. A shutdown would have given Republicans, who now control the levers of power in Washington, an easy scapegoat to blame Democrats for the additional chaos which would have followed with even more negative consequences.

Schumer saw through that and did his party and his country a favor by supporting passage of a bill in the Senate to keep the government running – though I am sure there was lot in it that he didn’t like

In my view, it took political courage for Schumer to do this. He is taking some short-term political flack for his position, but, in the long-run, it was the right and smart thing to do both politically and for the country.

Chuck Schumer, unlike the President, has a long history in and knowledge of how government works. In truth, government has an important role to play in our society. Sometimes it can overreach and become bloated, but what it does is address needs that the private sector does not or cannot do – like public safety, public infrastructure, a court system, public schools, food and meat inspection, environmental standards, healthcare support, running a National Park Service, maintaining roads and bridges, funding social security and the military and all of the other myriad of things that we take for granted in this great country of ours.

So, Senator Schumer, thanks for standing up and doing the right thing. You may be getting criticism from some quarters, but, for what it’s worth, your stock is still strong up here, in that part of the state north and west of the Tappan Zee Bridge – that demarcation line south of which lies the great majority of this state’s residents and voters.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.