Two weeks ago, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he would oppose H.R. 1, his party’s election reform package, and further reiterated his support for retaining the filibuster. This prompted howls of outrage from the left and renewed calls to pressure Manchin into “nuking” the filibuster. Manchin has walked back his comments somewhat, and has expressed interest in a more bipartisan election reform bill and weakening the filibuster.
Regardless of where he ultimately comes down on this, the hunt to repeal the filibuster is misplaced, especially from the Democrats’ point of view. While repealing the filibuster may help them in the immediate moment (and the long term is absolutely unpredictable) in the short-to-medium term retaining the filibuster probably helps Democrats more than Republicans.
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