As expected this afternoon, the Manchin-Toomey amendment on background checks was defeated by filibuster: A solid majority of the Senate supported the amendment, but with 60 votes needed the amendment fell five votes short. The actual vote was 54-46, with Harry Reid switching to “no” for procedural reasons in order to be able to bring it back in the future. However, its return is not expected, given how far short the measure fell.

This is obviously a substantial setback for those who support stronger gun legislation, and for one of the president’s top agenda items.However, I think Greg’s long-term optimism from this morning is entirely appropriate. The bottom line about legislating in any system — let alone America’s convoluted Madisonian system — is that it’s really hard to do. Never mind the procedural hurdles, including the Senate supermajority that filibustering Republicans insist upon for all measures; never mind the need to either have unified party control of government (rare) or bipartisan support (hard to get). Just start at the beginning: Getting agreement among those who feel strongly about an issue is really difficult; getting agreement among those strong supporters and the willing-to-support that are usually needed to get anything done is even harder.

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And so while today is clearly a crushing setback for proponents of tougher gun legislation, overall the effort has been a very solid step towards eventual passage. If, that is, the people who strongly supported today’s amendment keep working to reward Senators who supported them, to make life difficult for those who opposed them; and, most of all, to make it a must-support for future candidates.

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(Jonathan Bernstein, writing yesterday at Greg Sargent's WaPo The Plum Line blog, taking the "if outrage leads to rededication rather than resignation" view)