Welcome from an emigre Iron Ranger.
Manchinology is almost as esoteric and unrewarding as old-fashioned Kremlinology, though there are some interesting journalistic analyses of him now circulating.
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When you ask a question that doesn’t lead with a false premise, I’ll consider it.
Easy to see why rednecks hate AOC; She’s female. Worse, she’s smart, female and Hispanic.
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I just ran across an article from over two months ago in the New Yorker that explains that this is certainly the case. The dark money aspect isn’t being brought up much by the media but is probably the biggest issue, and Manchin has been pressured on it, presumably by donors. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century#intcid=_content-attr-2a-tny_9d4d53cb-2d12-4e45-b8de-6df4481f8e71_exp2-a-tny
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I don’t fully get the donors thing. I mean kinda, because corruption and staff welfare, but if he’s unlikely to run next time around, what’s he going to with that money anyway?
A simple stand-alone bill making election day a holiday instead of the 886-page monstrosity John Judis describes on the lead page could conceivably be passed by both houses before election day 2022 and greatly increase the prospects of a huge Democratic turnout. Simple, effective, comprehensible reform that the public would accept and be thankful for.
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One of the big reasons I’m as loyal to TPM as I am has to do, indirectly, with this argument. When Republicans were making the first big stink about requiring Voter ID, I wrote to Josh and asked if he could explain why Democrats were opposed to requiring Voter ID. I had one, everyone I knew had one, how big of a deal was it? Shouldn’t we just let them pass their Voter ID requirement laws and move on to other fights?
Josh actually responded to me and knocked a little sense into me. It wasn’t about me or my friends. It was about other people that weren’t like me. Sure, I had always considered myself to be empathic and I was a Democrat because I didn’t want to pull up the ladder behind me on the way up the socioeconomic ladder, but in some ways I was giving lip service to the ideals. In reality I wasn’t looking out for others, I was only being benignly neglectful. I wouldn’t actively hurt them, but I wasn’t actually trying to help them either.
What does all this have to do with your comment? Not much except indirectly. If we are only worried about helping or supporting the middle class or Liberal professionals, the idea of making election day a holiday sounds really good. The problem is, it does nothing to address the needs of the working class. Think retail workers, gas station workers, and service industry workers everywhere else. How does making election day a holiday help them? I don’t see that it does, and I believe we need to consider that before pushing for it.
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“But Manchin is not only opposed to nixing the filibuster to pass the voting rights bill; he’s opposed to the bill on the merits, because it doesn’t have Republican support. He’s said he won’t back any elections overhaul that doesn’t have GOP buy-in.”
Won’t back elections overhaul that doesn’t have GOP buy-in.
Just savor that for a moment. Let it sink in.
It is f*cking obvious that there is nothing the GOP wants to do that vaguely represents support of voting rights of US citizens. Their only goal is to limit voting as much as possible to their racist white supporters.
So, Manchin is either (i) the dumbest sh*t ever to be elected to the Senate or (ii) actually a racist himself.
This is an excellent point. These folks don’t get any other federal holiday off, why would Election Day be any different?
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He’s backed himself into a rhetorical corner. Nothing I said is wrong. He’s a stunning level of stupid and proven himself to be worthless. No we don’t have a vote yet on infrastructure because he is letting McConnell run the Senate. No we don’t have a vote yet on voting rights because he’s come out against the legislation and insists that we need Republicans to restore the VRA.
The last time I saw a senator act this stupid was in 2009 when democrats thought Republicans would vote for healthcare if it was their own plan and i it included enough concessions.
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Time will tell.
There are some things you don’t need to wait to understand the consequences. Drinking poison is a bad bet. We have documented evidence to support the idea that drinking poison might kill you. There is no need to drink poison and wait for “time to tell”.
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I am of the view that no one in Manchin’s position could misunderstand the Republican intent to obstruct everything, he has lived it for years.
I can be convinced that he is fooling himself as to his reelection chances.
Calling someone stupid when you don’t understand their motivations wont make our Democracy work better. We need Manchin until we dont need him, that’s where we are.
I’m not saying we don’t need him, but his position and exposure to obstruction is also why if he claims bipartisanship is possible with the current republican party that doesn’t even have a policy agenda outside of re-electing Trump, we should assume he is indeed an idiot elevated to incompetence until he can support a logically sound narrative otherwise.
If Breyer dies before McConnell takes over again, I’m not even fully convinced Manchin would support a SCOTUS nomination without his “republican friends”. Any politician can debase themselves using re-election as an excuse. This excuse was designed to matter in the House but as a Senate Institutionalist Manchin would know that the constitutional purpose of 6 year terms is to alleviate re-election pressure being the sole driver in the upper chamber. That excuse also doesn’t consider that the legislation that Manchin giving McConnell veto power over is actually popular in his state with Republicans.
There is no logical explanation for Manchin’s actions. He isn’t representing his constituents who support the policies he is blocking. He isn’t supporting the party platform which gave him majority power and an President that has been accomodating. He isn’t even advancing his own stated policy objectives which included increased tax payfors for an infrastructure dollar amount double what Biden originally proposed. He has the power to do all of those things but is choosing to not do so because of an allegiance to people who benefit from his failure on the basis of an ahistorical understanding of the Senate that is more informed by “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” than it is the constitution and federalist papers.
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I see that we are both worried and frustrated. Seems like we share the sense that this is a critical time for the Republic and that bold action is required. However, I maintain that assigning stupidity as Manchin’s only reason for his rhetoric(and that’s all it is so far) is a cry for more imagination and less anger.
I have not seen him vote against any major legislation in the Biden era. It’s clear now we are gonna git a bunch of fillibustered votes this and next month. Let’s see if proof of the GOP’s disloyalty to the USA in evidence is the proof he has been asking for. He will have an even harder time saying he needs R votes when Schumer has just proven over and over that there is none.
I’ll come closer to your point of view when he actually torpedoes something.
PS, if Manchin were truly a Republican, or had “allegiance to those who benefit” he would have killed Obamacare and walked over to McConnell’s office and said, “I want to switch teams”. He would guarantee his seat until he was 89 years old.
Eligibility to vote absentee would be a good reason.
IF, that is/will be a real thing.
I am strongly in favor.
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I have not seen him vote against any major legislation in the Biden era.
That’s because Schumer hasn’t forced him to vote against anything yet. He’s against $15 min wage, he’s against infrastructure, he’s against the VRA, he’s against the For the People Act, he voted against a qualified nominee because of her twitter feed (and that she happened to not be white). He threatened to vote against confirmation of another non-white appointee.
He has already torpedoed quite a bit.
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I don’t care about some appointee. Those things don’t save the Republic. You seem like you want to be mad, so I’ll leave you to that. Thanks for the chat.
You seem to think Manchin has a brain. I assure you the pleasure was all yours.
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