(#4505) Joe Biden is expressing all of our frustration with Manchin

      I don't include Sinema in this because she is more a follower and not as adamant publicly as Manchin. I have no doubt that when Manchin does vote for either reconciliation or a filibuster cut out for voting rights that Sinema will do the same. But in the meantime we are now into June and working with republicans to try to find bipartisanship is fruitless. No serious consideration by republicans are coming so the time to end the attempt to include them in legislation is over. It is now time to put the most pressure possible on Manchin and force a vote on several fronts. There has been enough frustration now built up that even Manchin is at a point where if forced to he may well vote with the rest of us democrats.
      My point about all of this is that the republican party is counting on Manchin to stop the Biden agenda. They know how much Manchin wants to keep the integrity of the filibuster in tact even though I am sure that he fails to comprehend the historical nature of the filibuster and why it was implemented. Manchin's take on the filibuster has its roots in the idea that it gives the senate an appearance of gravitas, where the more intellectual of the legislative branches, the Senate, filters the legislation proposed by the less intelligent House of Representatives. That is my opinion on the Manchin concept and for me it makes sense. Yet, just look at some of the characters in the Senate on the republican side as a rebuttal to the more intelligent premise.
     Guys like paul and cruz automatically come to mind but then there is tuberville and blackburn to book end the first two fools. None of the republican Senators can claim to be intellectually superior to much of anything let alone other people. So keeping the filibuster in the Senate as an offset for what the snobbish would call foolery of the House bills is illogical and actually harmful. The Biden agenda is an honest attempt to adjust the imbalance in our society and no one with a lick of sense is unaware of that. Ending the filibuster or at minimum adjusting it so that the threshold isn't insurmountable is required and Manchin and Sinema had better get with the program now so that little to no more time is wasted getting needed and proper relief to our society.