Pray Schumer holds fast

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced that he will cave in the showdown that threatened to stall big parts of President Biden’s agenda. The Senate minority leader relented on his demand that Democrats commit to keeping the legislative filibuster, and instead will allow a power-sharing agreement to proceed, letting Democrats assume the majority.

  WaPo

Just read that again. The losing party "will allow a power-sharing agreement to proceed, letting the [winning party] assume the majority."  Unfuckingbelievable.

Superficially, it’s of course good news that McConnell backed down. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) correctly judged that McConnell would buckle if Democrats refused to rule out ending the legislative filibuster later. They’ll need to preserve that possibility as a future weapon against relentless McConnell obstructionism.

But the bad news is that en route to this point, two moderate Senate Democrats — Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — further dug themselves in against ending the filibuster at any point. Though that could change, for now it risks weakening Democratic leverage against McConnell’s use of it to frustrate Biden’s agenda.

[...]

Rachel Maddow pointed out that during Barack Obama’s presidency, Democrats offered extensive concessions to Republicans on health care, immigration and economic recovery spending, only to see them bail on compromises and instead engage in maximal obstruction. In response, Schumer pledged that this time, Democrats will not get lured in by GOP bad faith, and vowed that Democrats will respond with procedural aggressiveness against McConnell’s all-but-certain duplication of that performance.

[...]

After all, by Schumer’s own lights, if McConnell does engage in relentless obstruction, as we all know he will attempt, then he isn’t merely threatening to derail the Biden agenda and its ability to address the extraordinary challenges the country faces.

Nor is McConnell merely threatening to badly cripple governing so Biden takes the blame, costing Democrats in the 2022 elections, though that’s strategically important to McConnell, as Robert Reich points out:

No, what McConnell is threatening is even worse than all that. By Schumer’s analysis, successful McConnell obstruction would also continue undermining faith in democracy itself, making voters susceptible to another Trumpist demagogue.

In this telling, Democrats are now operating from the premise that hopes for restored faith in our democratic system — hopes for the defeat of Trump and the capture of the Senate by popular majorities leading to genuine civic renewal — rest less on achieving bipartisan cooperation for its own sake, and more on the scale of the program that Democrats deliver upon.

[...]

If Schumer and the Democratic caucus genuinely believe building on this requires delivering in a big way, that suggests a real shift in thinking, particularly if moderates are gravitating toward this idea, as Schumer claims.

But, importantly, it would appear to leave little choice but to be genuinely prepared to end the filibuster if McConnell and Republicans do succeed in stymying the Biden agenda.

Notably, Democrats plan to pursue a package of major reforms that would broaden access to voting, place tight limits on future voter suppression and counter-majoritarian tactics, and codify good governing norms that Trump tried to destroy.

This, too, will be filibustered. Its full defeat would scuttle a real opening to achieve democracy-strengthening reforms, paving the way for expanded anti-democratic tactics, a quick GOP return to power, and more dysfunction in the face of big crises. Given Democrats’ commitment to revitalizing civic faith, you’d think that would be seen as intolerable

And you would hope. If they Democrats don't do it this time around, they may never get another chance to try.