Twenty-two days into the federal government shutdown, the White House and its allies circulated these words by House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) far and wide. “Shutdowns are terrible,” she told a reporter. “Of course, there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage times we have.” It was a succinct statement of the Democratic position on the shutdown. The party does not control the White House, House, or Senate. But Democrats do retain the power to filibuster legislation in the upper chamber. Later that day, 44 of the 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats voted for the 12th time to block a clean continuing resolution that would temporarily fund federal operations and permit the government to reopen. That is indeed the leverage point that the Democratic minority still has. Democrats flirted with abolishing the filibuster while they still had control of the Senate under former President Joe Biden. Progressive Democrats said it was a moral imperative and a matter of racial justice despite employing this legislative procedure against Republican majorities for years. Some Democrats, eager to expand government, are practically baiting Republicans into scrapping or diluting the filibuster now, with an eye toward what they would be able to accomplish without the 60-vote threshold to end debate if they prevail in next year’s midterm elections. That is nothing new....