Sinema's I think Gallegos has a great chance to win and hold. Manchin's will be filled by a GQPer. Despite the map we are facing, I do think the Senate will hold and largely on the issue of women's health and rights. If Dems embraced cannabis legalization and being the party of law and order as well as supporting US strength in the world through NATO and support for democracies around the world, we would be a shoe in.

We need to play dirty though. Not as dirty as them, but we cannot be civil to these GOP cretins. And within the law.

Manchin will be replaced by a vote even more stridently against Democrats killing the filibuster for legislation. And there's more than a slight chance that Sinema will be as well.

The more important narrative they're missing is that if Trump is elected... he almost certainly brings in a red senate majority with him (possibly a substantial one - as we are defending several competitive seats and have to run the table now just to keep the senate at 50/50).

The filibuster then becomes the only thing standing between us and Trump's most extreme legislative agenda items. Lots of those "Senate filibuster critics" will return to the other side of the argument

The worst-case scenario is a repeat of what gave us the current supreme court. Republicans take this push from the "senate critics" as an excuse to go ahead and kill the filibuster (and perhaps increase the size of the courts)... and no way for us to stop it. We will once again come to regret what was always a wrong-headed idea that had a short-term gain yet was a long-term catastrophe.

They've learned their lesson.

the first thing they will do is see if they have then numbers to kill the filibuster.

All of the Democrats but two seemingly think it's a racist anachronism. Right?

I always thought that Manchin/Sinema were providing cover for at least a few traditionalists in the party.

But I doubt many here consider Republicans to be as principled. No matter how small their majority... there are dozens of Democrats who are on record supporting killing the filibuster.

If Trump comes to power with majorities in both chambers - there's no way to avoid the following: Either Republicans will be shown to be principled in their positions... not moving to kill the filibuster because they actually always believed that it was sacrosanct (stop laughing!)... or Democrats will prove that it was never about a principled belief that the filibuster should go.

Here's hoping we never find out.

After that - you don't need to be a dictator - as you have complete autocratic authority.

Our Bi-Cameral Legislature will not hold - and if it does - the Democratic Party members in those two house will be imprisoned or killed.

there were other Dem senators wanting to keep the filibuster and hiding behind Manchin and Sibema.

Manchin was a former governor, and his conservative Democratic positions allowed him to win a close election 6 years ago.
It would be very difficult for any Democrat to hold onto that seat in a state that is so strongly Republican.

After reading the history, I suggest:

- we reform the filibuster so that it only innoculates certain issues of major importance or, in the alternate, we make certain legislation exempt from the filibuster. (It is like this today, with judicial appointments, cabinet approvals, and spending bills being exempt, in part, from the filibuster.

- we return to the real filibuster which is a protracted holding of the floor by a single senator or, in the alternate, limiting debate otherwise so that it can not be eternal but has a long, but limited, expiration point.

I'm sure there are better ideas than mine. However, we go back and forth on this depending on who is in the majority. Repugs in the majority are BIG fans of killing the filibuster and vice-versa. That is unsustainable.

I'll also point out that, if we kill the filibuster entirely, we will see legislation reversing laws every time a new party takes the majority. Wild swings in our laws will become the norm.

Just my humble (informed) opinion.

some kind of action on reining in the (formerly) s.c. Maybe voting rights? Minority rights? If the Dems win majorites across the board, I would like to see them use it, and make some of the things permanent that right now remain at the whim of whatever party is the majority.

rwnj are not going to play fair, not going to be reasonable, will continue to empower zealots and hypocrites. Let us please do something to roll back the ridiculous, unamerican dialogue and action that has been allowed to wreck so many lives in this country.

McConnell is a "staunch defender of the filibuster" when Democrats are in charge of the Senate. When Republicans are in charge, he will decry them doing the same things he did as "unprecedented obstruction" and will find a weaselly reason to ignore filibuster rules.

Personally, I think the filibuster, instead of being blown up, should either go the "Mr Smith" version, where one has to keep talking to continue the filibuster, or change it so that it takes two-thirds to continue it, instead of end it.