When the dems had the house they had a faux majority in the Senate. Neither Manchin nor Sinema would have voted to abolish the filibuster and they had no path to 60 votes for anything against Trump.
This is really the issue. Republicans are kind of die-hard party voters in Congress. The Dems had a few turds in the punchbowl who wouldn't do the right thing.
When the dems had the house they had a faux majority in the Senate.
Democrats had a real majority. They found enough no votes to block stuff they ran on but never had any intention of passing. Exactly like they did with the public option.
Voters are expected to operate in perfect lockstep and vote for the worst candidates party leadership thinks it can get away with. When our elected officials break off and vote with their fucking donors, we don't demand conformity with the party from them at all.
Your argument is a false dichotomy. You need 40 votes to block and 61 votes to pass anything (that's not a budget reconciliation or judicial confirmations) in the Senate. That's a difference of 11 states worth of Senators. Its a fucking nightmare, but its also a big part of what slowed Trump's agenda.
Your argument is a false dichotomy. You need 40 votes to block and 61 votes to pass anything (that’s not a budget reconciliation or judicial confirmations) in the Senate.
They need only 50 to change the rules of the Senate, with which they could do away with the filibuster forever. If they wanted to.
I sure do. Just enough Democrats considered the preservation of the Jim Crow Filibuster to be a greater priority than protecting Roe. Or democracy itself.