Tim, there's one problem you're ignoring: Manchin isn't exactly helping anything either.
I've said this before: Manchin is better than Sinema only because Manchin actually seems to want to do the work of a senator. He actually proposes bills. There's only one problem: nothing Manchin has proposed can pass the Senate either.
Tim, there's one problem you're ignoring: Manchin isn't exactly helping anything either.
I've said this before: Manchin is better than Sinema only because Manchin actually seems to want to do the work of a senator. He actually proposes bills. There's only one problem: nothing Manchin has proposed can pass the Senate either.
Take for example: voting rights. The house proposed a bill. Manchin said 'it's too liberal. I want to make my own bill that will get republican votes.' The democrats agreed. Manchin made his bill. He put it up for a vote in the senate. It got 0 GOP votes. Does he want to change the filibuster rules so that the bill he made can pass? No. Is he trying to change it so that voting rights can pass? No.
Instead, he's basically just taken up doing nothing and calling it a strategy. Meaning that he's essentially decided that nothing is worth passing. If your calculation is that anything that the democrats want to do is too liberal, and that Manchin should be taking the lead with more moderate things, then that clashes with the reality that Manchin doesn't want to do anything at all and isn't willing to play hardball to get things he himself supposedly wants. He won't even work to pass his OWN bills that he made with the explicit point of getting GOP support.
It's okay to say that more liberal democrats are living in a fantasy land. But Manchin is also living in a fantasy land. And you have to accept that or else admit that he just doesn't want to do much of anything.
I get it that Mansion gains support from WV voters when he blocks the Dems “socialist” agenda. What I don’t get is his opposition to voting rights legislation. WV voters are not gonna get upset if he supports voting rights. This suggests that he’s not just doing cold calculating politics. There’s a hard right ideological element.
Tim, there's one problem you're ignoring: Manchin isn't exactly helping anything either.
I've said this before: Manchin is better than Sinema only because Manchin actually seems to want to do the work of a senator. He actually proposes bills. There's only one problem: nothing Manchin has proposed can pass the Senate either.
Take for example: voting rights. The house proposed a bill. Manchin said 'it's too liberal. I want to make my own bill that will get republican votes.' The democrats agreed. Manchin made his bill. He put it up for a vote in the senate. It got 0 GOP votes. Does he want to change the filibuster rules so that the bill he made can pass? No. Is he trying to change it so that voting rights can pass? No.
Instead, he's basically just taken up doing nothing and calling it a strategy. Meaning that he's essentially decided that nothing is worth passing. If your calculation is that anything that the democrats want to do is too liberal, and that Manchin should be taking the lead with more moderate things, then that clashes with the reality that Manchin doesn't want to do anything at all and isn't willing to play hardball to get things he himself supposedly wants. He won't even work to pass his OWN bills that he made with the explicit point of getting GOP support.
It's okay to say that more liberal democrats are living in a fantasy land. But Manchin is also living in a fantasy land. And you have to accept that or else admit that he just doesn't want to do much of anything.
I get it that Mansion gains support from WV voters when he blocks the Dems “socialist” agenda. What I don’t get is his opposition to voting rights legislation. WV voters are not gonna get upset if he supports voting rights. This suggests that he’s not just doing cold calculating politics. There’s a hard right ideological element.
Shawn nailed it. Manchin's original name was Manchurian.
Thank you. This articulates what I've wanted to say but found it hard to spell out.
I agree with Shawn!
We need a "Shawn is right!" t-shirt.