This has been the case for years. Before Manchin there were Lieberman, Landrieux, Pryor, Bayh, and of course Dixiecrats, gunking up the works to promote their political agendas and feel important. He and Sinema are perhaps the last of a hopefully dying breed. If Dems can pick up a couple of seats in 2022 then they become moot. And of these arguably Lieberman was the only one who didn’t have an arguably legitimate political reason to be to the right of the caucus. Manchin does, representing a very right-leaning state. Even AZ, which has been trending blue, is still basically center-right.
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I know it’s been posted in other threads already, but this article is everything I need to know about Joe Manchin supporting “West Virginia constituents” and it needs to be repeated every time we talk about him: https://theintercept.com/2021/06/16/joe-manchin-leaked-billionaire-donors-no-labels/
Joe Manchin, in a private call on Monday with a group of major donors, provided a revealing look at his political approach to some of the thorniest issues confronting lawmakers.
Also “No Labels” is a cute name for a bunch of greedy equity fund a-holes. Maybe Joe can help us by pointing out how many of his Wall Street buddies live in West Virginia.
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Meanwhile, today America celebrates the emancipation of enslaved Black people. Manchin is probably golfing with the boys.
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Precisely. This may or may not be about Manchin’s own racist views–but what’s more about is what he perceives his base (probably accurately) to believe, and what it’s most about is his knuckle-headed attempt to be a deal-maker/power broker.
History echoes but it does not repeat. Proof? Biden/Harris are not “making the same mistakes” as Obama/Biden.
Spot-on.
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That’s a good point. I certainly can’t say for sure what would explain him, but he acts as if he believes the red-state excuses and justifications. If you thought there’s really no institutional racism any more, and voting fraud was the issue that needed to be addressed, you might act this way. If you were voluntarily credulous because you didn’t want to see family, friends, and neighbors for what they were, you might act this way. Maybe he has the instincts of a well-meaning but deliberately naive apologist. I don’t know. But I think the theory at least fits the facts.
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Isn’t there some saying about a politician only believes in what he’s paid to believe? Now I wouldn’t dare to presume that Manchin is this type of politician, but I will say damnit Joe if you’re working on some sort principles then you should loudly proclaim them, and give your reasons for why your principle that you are standing firm on is more important than other’s principles that are trying to even the playing field.
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Sometimes that attitude is narcissism mixed with megalomania, but often it’s just extreme provincialism, the inability, as opposed to unwillingness, to realize that not everyone is like you and that your views and way of life are just one among many, and no better nor worse. Like rural and lower-income American Xtians who think that their version of Xtianity is the one and only true one because it’s the only one they’ve been exposed to, and that those French, Bolivian, Ugandan and Korean Xtians are just these quaint little strange people who just think they’re Xtian and all wish they were Murcan Xtians like them. It’s a form of stupidity that’s rampant in the US, especially on the right. Some believe Jesus spoke English.
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I said it above, but it bears repeating; Joe Manchin’s constituents aren’t the people of West Virgina, they are
Louis Bacon, chief executive of Moore Capital Management; Kenneth D. Tuchman, founder of global outsourcing company TeleTech; and Howard Marks, the head of Oaktree Capital, one of the largest private equity firms in the country.
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All pols have to answer to both their voters and top donors–and, for some, to those who have Kompromat on them.
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OT
Not sure if I should laugh or just shake my head.
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“It’s dollars that they control, hard money dollars,” said Andrew Bursky, another co-founder of No Labels and the founder and managing partner of private equity firm Atlas Holdings. “I will tell you that I participated in the last cycle, when we handed out checks to a number of our members of the House in the range of $50,000. And in many cases, they went there, the fact that was the single largest check they received, overall in their campaigns.
…
“Think about joining the House: You’re there for 730 days, unless you pick the leap year, and maybe you get 731,” said Bursky. “And for the vast majority, those days, you’re spending four hours on the telephone, dialing for dollars. And so what this does — aside from sending the very strong message that there are folks who will have your back if you take tough votes that by partisan nature that may not be popular within your party — it also in real life frees them to do more work, because it’s spending less time raising those funds.”
“So it’s powerful. And there’s just no question that we have had and we continue to have an impact,” he added.
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No matter what Manchin proposes, no R’s will vote for it anyway.
Funny thing is, when Stacey Abrams announced she was in favor of Manchin’s Voting Rights compromise, Republican senators started calling it the Stacey Abrams Voting Rights bill. So I guess that means it’s Abrahams fault - and we can’t go hard on Manchin yet b/c he’s still holding the best hand. And he’s very sensitive.
I still believe Biden will bring him around. This is one of those moments he’s been preparing for his entire political life.
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The governor?
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Look closer.
They promote fear of everything except the oligarchs who actually are most responsible for the people’s low income, lack of opportunity, lack of local manufacturing as compared to making everything in low-wage countries, lack of ability to change laws, and general sense of misery when they still have a better standard of living than Americans a century ago.
They never seem to make a bogeyman of people exploiting the capitalist system to multiply riches and manipulating the political system to reduce taxation on high incomes or high wealth.
[edited to add: Louis Bacon, Jenneth D. Tuchman, and Howard Marks, for example]
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“ Manchin wrote that he wanted to take consent decrees off the table, to prevent the risk of “savvy lawyers” going into cash-strapped localities that don’t have the money to fight off lawsuits…”
Like there’s not a bizzilion dark money groups that ever let that happen.
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He is getting “advice” from No Labels. Are they located in West Virginia? Ya think they are concerned about the folks in West Virginia?
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People have predicted this (not this specifically, but democracy under siege in general) would happen when white people realized their demographic edge was slipping. As usual, no one was truly prepared.
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WOW, I had no idea!
James Conley Justice II (born April 27, 1951) is an American businessman and politician who has been serving as the 36th governor of West Virginia since 2017. With a net worth of around $1.2 billion, he is the wealthiest person in West Virginia.[3] He inherited a coal mining business from his father and built a business empire with over 94 companies, including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort.[4]
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All of them seem to believe Jesus had blue eyes.
A lot of them seem to believe Jesus personally endorsed the flag of a nation not yet created on a continent that his society didn’t know existed. And supported that nation in wars against other humans. And even supported a particular political party in that nation’s elections.
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The Lord works in mysterious ways
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