It literally is the prisoner's dilemma playing out in real time. And the thing is, the benefits of defecting are
lucrative. Manchin said he wasn't going to play ball, and got wall-to-wall breathless coverage, with the media hanging on his every word. And how can the Democrats retaliate? This needs to be done now. They don't support Manchin or Sinema in their upcoming elections? That's fine, those won't be for another few years. Same with the House elections. And while they're still not popular,
voter's views of their own representatives are more positive than their views of Congress as a whole. Getting voters to turn against their representatives would be easier said than done. I'm just not seeing many good options for anybody but trying to get everything out of this that they can. And, of course, not worry too much about us down here.