Manchin’s HEAD is a heavy lift. Big-headed imbezzle, ultra-maroon.
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Republican Buy-In only makes sense if the Republicans are a functioning national political party, committed to the democratic ideals this country was founded on. That is not what we have today. Today’s Republicans are a regional (rural) hegemonic power without any interest in actual governance of the nation as a whole. They’ve made it plain as day that if they aren’t allowed to do things the way they want, they are perfectly fine with burning it all down.
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The optics aspect is so true. Reading Dr. Seuss at 2AM to defeat voting rights.
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Neither Manchin nor Sinema are making sense. They are on the path of No. Let’s play it out and make them vote their votes.
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She and her (current) staff don’t really care about constituent feedback. She has canceled old friend/associates/helpers and made new ones who give her lobbying money. She is a raging narcissist who thinks the is John McCain in size XL bloomers.
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I admire your optimism. I wish I shared it. Unfortunately, Ms. ‘Fuck-off’ Sinema isn’t in office for her nominal constituents.
I don’t think filibuster reform is a good idea at this late date. We’ll be able to get, what, one? Maybe two pieces of legislation with it? And Manchin’s voting rights act, while certainly helpful, isn’t really going to solve the most pressing problems (e.g. gerrymandering, malapportionment, republicans seizing control of state voting apparatuses).
While I could be persuaded otherwise, I think, at this point, we benefit more from forcing republicans to be the ones to pull the trigger on this. Or from waiting to do so until we are in a better position to benefit.
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Manchin and Sinema are a No on reforming the filibuster, period.
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He is a Prick!
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When fascists fly.
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Joe Mansion can go fuck himself. And when he’s done with that, he can go fuck himself some more.
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Which we might as well admit this is about as likely as the Taliban admitting the right of Israel to exist. Why are we even thinking that this is even negotiable for them?
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@txlawyer
“Can we please just ignore Manchin?”
Apparently Manchin is trying to convey the misinformation that anti-vote, anti-democracy GOP legislatures and GOP governors requested and received approval from Democrats?
This with regard to the coordinated disenfranchising of American voters by GOP state legislatures.
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Manchin is playing with fire. According to the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute, the electoral autocracy model, which is geared to optimizing election results for the ruling regime, is now in place in 87 countries in the world. The final phase before a once-liberal democracy sinks into electoral autocracy is called a “trashed democracy” which is where the still “liberal democracy with moderate violations” US is heading. Pretty much everything Manchin said today suggests he has no concern for the consequences of continued ungovernability, but there are over seven dozen reasons that he is free to consider to see just how wrong he is. Institution-wise, the harm this man is doing is massive.
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Actually, substantially better odds of getting the Taliban on board than Republicans.
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The filibuster is a bad rule. Period. It’s not about political advantage or who could make best use of it. It needs to be removed now. It allows a tiny fraction of the country to hold the rest of the country hostage for no effort. It needs to be ended. It has no Constitutional validation and it’s an arcane (and accidental) rule that serves no good purpose toward crafting better legislation.
In any case, the GOP demographically is unlikely to be in a position where removing the filibuster is in their best interest. They will always want to keep it because it more or less will always be to their advantage to have around to obstruct legislation. Even when they are in power, there are bills they are happy to “support” which won’t be able to get an up-or-down vote because if they ever were, they would be terrible laws.
It prevents them from having to police their own party and tell the knuckleheads to sit down and shut up (which would likely upset them and make them take their ball and go home instead of sticking with the GOP). It helps them paper over the cracks in their party and pretend that they are one unified edifice. If they were forced to actually make up-or-down votes on some of the bills they craft, the party would fracture in short order.
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It is easier to fiddle than to fight the growing fire.
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I can understand that in democracy there is a need to respond to the minority but not to give them the ability to rule.
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And after that?
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Well, at least he didn’t run off to announce his opposition on Fox News. Maybe he moved a fraction of an inch toward the side that wants to save democracy.
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