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...and what you're saying emphasizes the importance of maintaining the fillibuster rule in the Senate, and why Thune was correct to defy Trump and not nuke the fillibuster rule to reopen the government.
If 60 votes are required to get legislation passed in the Senate, it FORCES consensus to be achieved in a way which a bare majority does not.
A 60-40 vote represents a very solid majority.
To end the shutdown, it FORCED the Democrats to cooperate in ending the shutdown, at least in the Senate.
Now,whether that was based on individual votes by the Senators involved, or was really orchestrated by the Dem caucus to pick 8 Senators who weren't going to be up for election in the near future, isn't really that important.
The filibuster rule in the Senate also helps to prevent a situation in which Congress is almost equally split, but the majority keeps flip-flopping every two years, which would result in absolute legislative chaos far worse than what exists now.
