Opinion: Democrats have one way to stop Trump in GOP Senate. You can thank Sinema for that.

So, I imagine that Democrats’ thank-you notes are in the mail to outgoing U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for their refusal to end the filibuster.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego once called the 60-vote Senate rule “a tool of obstruction,” back when Democrats ran the joint. Gallego, in a tight race to replace Sinema in the Senate, was one of many Democrats who called out the senator for her refusal to join with them to end the filibuster so that a wish list of Democratic proposals could flow forth on a simple majority vote.

“My position is that filibuster has to get reformed. It’s not a tool of compromise, it’s a tool of obstruction,” Gallego said last year as he announced his Senate campaign.

Still feeling the same way, I wonder, now that Republicans are about to control the Senate?

Now that Donald Trump will be back in the White House, with a Senate eager to advance his agenda on taxes and immigration? On education and health care and social policy? (Judicial and executive branch confirmations require only 51 votes, as that portion of the filibuster rule was gutted a decade or so ago.)

Democrats said Sinema was wrong to protect filibuster

Democrats were aghast when Sinema and Manchin held firm on the filibuster after Joe Biden became president, refusing to ditch the procedural rule to pass a voting rights bill in 2022.

Ditto in September, when Vice President Kamala Harris called for scrapping the filibuster to pass abortion rights legislation.

“To state the supremely obvious, eliminating the filibuster to codify Roe v Wade also enables a future Congress to ban all abortion nationwide,” Sinema said in September. “What an absolutely terrible, shortsighted idea.”

Democrats immediately reached for their knives.

Today, they should be reaching for her hand, to thank Sinema for standing tough.

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Filibuster will protect Democrats in GOP-run Senate

With Republicans soon to be in control of the White House, the Senate and maybe even the House, the filibuster will be one of the Democrats’ few remaining speed bumps to slow down some of Trump’s more controversial plans for America.

Can you imagine if Democrats had already gutted it?

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In 2018, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, a frustrated President Trump called for ending the filibuster as Democrats blocked his border initiatives and other grand plans.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted Trump’s call.

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On Wednesday, McConnell stood firm once again on keeping the filibuster in place even though Republicans could junk the supermajority rule with a simple majority vote.

“The filibuster will stand,” McConnell told reporters.

Though McConnell is stepping down as party leader, his comments signal that Senate Republicans likely will leave the filibuster in place.

And Democrats? I’m guessing suddenly that antiquated “tool of obstruction” is now looking an awful lot like a protector of minority rights.

Laurie Roberts is a columnist at the Arizona Republic, where this column initially published. Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz and on Threads: @LaurieRobertsaz

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Opinion: Democrats still have filibuster. Thank Sinema for saving it