Republicans in Congress have a choice. They can choose to continue opposing the majority in everything or they can choose to exert their power as a minority. This is an important point so let me repeat it another way. Simply put, Republican power is a choice.

The Democrats have a small majority is the House of Representatives. They can pass bills with a party line vote, although a bipartisan votes is preferred. One reason is President Biden’s desire for bipartisanship. Another would be that it just looks better to the American people.

The Democrats have a very small majority in the Senate. It is actually an even split in the Senate but adding in Vice-president Harris’ tie breaking vote, it is 51 to 50. If the Democrats decide to eliminate the filibuster for certain type of bills or to convert a bill to a budget reconciliation bill, they can pass things on a party line vote. If there are non-extremist Republicans willing to work with Democrats to govern, this small group could have tremendous power in influence the content of the final bill.

If this group is 10 or more there certainly be less pressure to eliminate the filibuster. In any case, these Senate Republicans would have considerable power.

So the choice for both Republican Senators and Republican Representatives comes down to playing to the extremist part of the base or retaining power.