The final reconciliation bill is being scaled back considerably, thanks to Manchin and Sinema, but its passage is still vital to the lives of tens of millions and the outcome of the midterm elections – not to mention next week’s off year elections. It will be much less than we hoped for, but its passage is still of great consequence to the country’s future.

The Republicans, who are firmly a party of undemocratic, white nationalist, plutocratic authoritarian rule, are hoping that the final negotiations going on among Democrats and the Biden administration will break down this week and the bill will die.

If that happened, it would be a major defeat for Biden, Democrats, and the coalition that elected them in 2020, while at the same time deliver an early Christmas gift to the Trumpified GOP and no doubt give it added steam heading into the midterm elections next year. As for the future of democratic governance, it wouldn’t be the death knell, but the road to its preservation would get steeper for sure.