Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) has, time and again, been clear about his stance on the filibuster — he has no intention of voting to eliminate or weaken it, despite pressure from his fellow Democrats, because he wants to avoid an overly partisan, ideological Senate. But, writing from a conservative perspective, The New York Times' Ross Douthat ponders whether he should remain open to lowering the Senate tool's threshold from 60 votes to 55 vote.
Douthat thinks such a move could serve as a "middle ground" that "adapts the filibuster in a reasonable way to our age of heightened polarization, maintaining protections for the minority [party], while making some deals that used to be possible available again." There's a chance, he writes, that it could carve out a path "toward consensus without expecting our divisions to magically disappear."
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