(#4717) Manchin and Sinema can start the year off correctly by backing the Biden agenda

      A great way to start our year is to hear that Manchin and Sinema have agreed to deals on the human infrastructure bill and voting rights protection bills. There is no indication I have seen that this could happen but what I also haven't heard is any more denials by either of them during this holiday period of not backing them. Which gives me pause to maybe hope a little bit since it is like a cooling off period for both to be able to reassess their previous obstructive positions. I have no doubt that the backlash to their intransigence has been long and hard so maybe they will be seeing things differently in this new beginning of 2022. So much is riding on this election year that the pressure to get something done quickly will happen.
     However, I am no Pollyanna nor neophyte. The odds are that both Manchin and Sinema are still confounding to our party and gleefully perceived by the republican party. We will see in the return to the senate next week just how much either of them has moved toward saving our society and our political party they are members of. It is like a disconnect with them, a cognitive dissonance to a point where the real alternative of return to republican control rests on their remaining obstacles to Joe Biden and his majority fueled agenda. Neither Manchin or Sinema can claim any high ground here in the face of their prioritizing the filibuster over protecting our democracy and providing for our populace yet the do persist in doing so. It is my hope that they have seen the reality of their defiance and will acquiesce.
     This new year is just starting off, less than a handful of hours old but it can become a new year of great possibilities if the two currently illogical senators will join their other 48 "democratic" colleagues and pass the house bills waiting for them to back. Such jubilation will be felt if they do so and may even wash away all the bad feelings they have put upon we the people. I am for forgiving them if they choose to join us and although I won't forget what they put us through I will forgive and move on to happier days. Yet my wish for this to happen is not enough to make it so and if they continue to obstruct we all must put our shoulder to the wheel and move them forward beyond their own obstinance and inability to reason rationally.