The Democrats are feeling cocky about their chances in November, not only of seeing off Donald J. Trump to whatever awaits him after the presidency but also of entering 2021 with control of both houses of Congress. That means there is a renewed effort at hand to get rid of the filibuster.
The most important legislative reality for Democrats is that majorities do not last forever, but entitlements do. That’s the lesson of the grievously misnamed Affordable Care Act: If you are willing to take a kamikaze run at the issue, you can dig in deep enough in two years that it will take the opposition 20 years to undo what you have done, if it can be dug out at all. Here is something that Democrats under Barack Obama could boast of that Republicans under Donald Trump cannot: They were committed enough to their one big issue that they were willing to trade the majority for the bill. Commitment to an error is a very limited kind of virtue, but there is something to be said for the follow-through.
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