They turned democracy and our Constitution inside out in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday afternoon and nobody even flinched.

Senators voted 54-46 in FAVOR of legislation to close a legal loophole that lets thousands of gun purchasers, including criminals and people with a history of mental illness, evade a background check that might prevent them from acquiring a firearm.

But the loophole remains wide open; the legislation was DEFEATED.

It’s as if Michigan had won the NCAA basketball championship last week even though Louisville (Mitch McConnell’s alma mater!) scored more points.

Thanks to an (incredibly) unanimous agreement among senators, 60 votes were required to adopt the background check proposal fashioned by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-WVa. and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.. The arrangement allowed expanded checks to come to a vote; without it, opponents had promised they would conduct a filibuster and simply talk the Manchin-Toomey plan to death.

Someone should have called their bluff. Someone should have demanded that they explain themselves and their defiance of the American public’s clear judgment. Poll after poll confirms that upwards of 90 percent of Americans support expanded background checks, but a minority of senators has been allowed to defeat them after a three-day debate that consumed less than 10 hours on the Senate floor.

How do these people get away with this stuff?