Thread by @brianbeutler

I’ve found centrist-Dem insistence on seeking permission from Republicans to govern maddening forever, but the current context makes the made-up Manchin/Sinema defense of the filibuster extra offensive.

Contrast to 2009: Back when Dems were debating the ACA; they clearly should’ve abolished the filibuster or used the budget-reconciliation process to pass a better bill. But they didn’t want to, and the biggest risk they faced as a result was breaking a campaign promise.

That would’ve been terrible and embarrassing, but fundamentally it would’ve left things unchanged. Parties faceplant sometimes. It happens. It happened to Dems in 1993 on the same issue!

Ffwd to 2011, Republicans took the global economy hostage. They ran the House, so Dems couldn’t abolish-the-filibuster their way out of it. But if Republicans shot the hostage, Obama would’ve been under intense pressure to invoke the 14th amendment—if only to alleviate suffering.

After that, Republicans spent months trying to nullify the CFPB, NLRB, and three seats on the DC Circuit by indiscriminately filibustering nominees. Eventually it became intolerable and Dems…abolished the filibuster! But only for those classes of nominees.

The situation today is much more like the latter two scenarios than the first one. Not passing democracy reform now isn’t a political blunder like not passing a public option in 2009 or not passing immigration reform in 2010. It’s abetting sabotage.

It’s as if Republicans made a new party-wide rule against supporting disaster relief for blue states (something that they’ve tiptoed up to already) and Manchin and Sinema said nothing could be done because things must be bipartisan.

It’s as if Dems in 2013 had said “oh well, no more labor law I guess! No more Dem-nominated judges either. Them’s the rules!”

Manchin and Sinema (and any other filibuster supporters) can see that Republicans are using the filibuster to abet state parties disenfranchising Dem voters nationwide and subverting Dem legitimacy, and they’re so cosseted and self-involved that they’re just letting it happen.

It’s hard to think of a more glaring example of elected officials abdicating their powers at the expense of their oaths and their own voters. It’s stomach turning.