All of which brings us back to Sen. Manchin. Despite his rhetoric about bipartisanship, he has signaled that he is not averse to altering the filibuster. He has, for example, suggested making it “more painful” to use by returning to the “talking filibuster.” Forbes reports that Manchin recently told a group of donors he was open to lowering the filibuster threshold to 55 votes. He isn’t, of course, the only Democratic senator who says he won’t vote to kill the filibuster. When he finally flips, however, the scruples of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) will evaporate. The ultimate survival of the filibuster depends on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Sinema’s recent Washington Post op-ed defending the filibuster suggests that her position is based on genuine principle: “My support for retaining the 60-vote threshold is not based on the importance of any particular policy. It is based on what is best for our democracy.” Moreover, unlike Sen. Manchin, she hasn’t hinted that she’ll change her mind. Manchin, on the other hand, suffers from “dissociative ideology disorder.” He’s a common-sense Mountain State moderate when campaigning at home, but he morphs into a tool of the Left once safely back inside the Beltway. His filibuster pledge is worthless. He will renege on that promise, just as he did with his S 1 vote, and claim, “The GOP made me do it.”