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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-w. Va.) seemingly dashed any hopes of Democrats abolishing the filibuster anytime soon when he wrote last week that the legislative maneuver was a “critical tool” to protecting “our democratic form of government.” That’s a far different view than that of former President Barack Obama, who called it a “Jim Crow relic,” along with a slew of other critics. But an idealized view of the filibuster as a force for good isn’t an outlier; it’s the way that many students, of past generations and even today, are first exposed to it, via the 1939 Frank Capra classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. As much of a relic as the movie is, the climatic scene, in which Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) stages a nearly 24- hour filibuster against corruption and back-room dealing among his colleagues, has endured. It’s still used as a teaching tool and,...