Opinion | How Do You Like That Filibuster Now?

As Republicans prepare to take control of both chambers of Congress and the presidency, Senator Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat turned independent, has a question for his former Democratic teammates: “How do you like that filibuster now?”

Mr. Manchin is feeling sassy these days. His ex-party just got its clock cleaned and is facing two years, minimum, in the political wilderness. And, no surprise, as Mr. Manchin prepares to retire in January, he has plenty of thoughts on preserving the Senate’s role as an independent power center — a mission that feels especially vital with Donald Trump’s return to Washington.

Love him or loath him, Mr. Manchin is worth a listen as a man who understands how to use power whether you’re in the minority or the majority in the Senate. And at age 77, with more than four decades in politics, he takes the long view — a healthy mind-set for discouraged Democrats.

“They’ve got to understand that what goes around will come around, and what comes around will go around,” he said in a recent interview, lamenting the left’s attempts to blow up the filibuster, as well as its use of other procedural tricks to push through bills along partisan lines.

With Republicans ascendant, Mr. Manchin is now imploring them to resist the inevitable pressure to bend congressional rules and norms. And he thinks that in the Trump era, his favorite hobbyhorse, the unhip concept of bipartisanship, could and should get some new love on Capitol Hill. Mr. Manchin noted that Mr. Trump “won the popular vote and the Electoral College vote, which is great for the president,” who has claimed a mandate. “The Senate and the House do not have a mandate,” Mr. Manchin continued, noting how closely divided the chambers are. “They have a working mandate, if you want to say it that way. That means they must work with the other side.”

Some of Mr. Trump’s sketchier cabinet choices seem designed as an early test of his legislative partners’ obeisance. But Mr. Manchin expressed confidence that neither the Senate’s Democrats nor its Republicans (he counts the next majority leader, John Thune, as a “dear friend”) will just roll over for the new president’s picks. “You don’t let your vote go lightly,” he said, adding that tenet has been “pretty sacred” in his time in the Senate.