In just a year, Democrats went from the confident triumph of a new president pledging that “you’ve always had my back and I’ll always have yours” to a broken politics where Joe Biden can’t even convince his own senators that saving millions of Americans’ voting rights is worth a one-time filibuster carve-out…

If there is ‘nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what is right with America’, as the president likes to say, then what the hell is the problem?

Progressive lawmakers are privately beginning to accept that most of their more ambitious goals will likely be left behind on the legislative battlefield: a sweeping climate change package, for one. Criminal justice reform, too. And taxing the rich? Not with Manchin in the way. But if Biden is resigned to scaling back some of his loftier policy dreams, he must double down on protecting Americans’ fundamental right to vote. In a year marked by disappointments and disillusionment, Biden and Democrats can not afford to let their nation down where it matters most.