I was going to do this later but at least one of you thinks all hope is lost, and so I will do it now. The belief that all is lost is based on the fact that Dems will eliminate the filibuster in the senate. It now takes 60 votes in the senate to overcome a filibuster and the Dems only have 50. Without eliminating it the Dems can’t push through all their radical agenda like statehood for DC and Puerto Rico and packing the Supreme Court.
So the key question becomes, can the Dems keep all 50 members of their caucus on board so Kamala Harris can cast the deciding vote to open the floodgates. I don’t think so and apparently at least one of them agrees. Joe Manchin has said that he will not vote to end the filibuster and I believe him because it would be political suicide for him. West Virginia is a deep red state and he has only been able to keep his seat because he is a reasonable centrist. West Virginia is a big coal mining state and elimination of the filibuster would lead to loss of thousands of jobs in his state via the green new deal.
Now the reason I say that at least one senator on left believes that Manchin is telling the truth is because Bernie Sanders said on one of the late night shows either yesterday or the day before that they would get Biden’s bogus Covid stimulus bill passed using the budget reconciliation process.
Now for those of you who don’t remember, that’s how they got Obamacare passed. When Ted (was there a woman in my car underwater) Kennedy died and Scott Brown got elected destroying the Dems 60 votes in the senate, Harry Reid resorted to the budget reconciliation process which only requires a bare majority. Sanders wouldn’t need to resort to budget reconciliation if he thought the filibuster was eliminated! Yeah people I connect the dots.
One last thing. Remember when Obama got elected he had the House and a filibuster proof 60 senators and he still struggled to get things done including Obamacare. Don’t assume that just because they have the votes that they actually have the votes. There are plenty of senators and representatives who are up for election in two years who remember what happened to their party in 2014!