What is a Joe Manchin?
Yeah. I know. An easy one, right?
A Joe Manchin is a United States Senator. Represents the great state of West Virginia. One of two senators representing about 1.8 million people. Claims to be a member of the Democratic party. Loves the spotlight. Is a royal pain in the butt.
Whose butt? Mine for one. I didn’t vote for Manchin. I did vote for Joe Biden. Remember him? He’s the one who ran for president. Got 81 million votes. Won the election. Has promised a wide range of popular reforms on taxation and spending designed to rebuild our aging infrastructure. Prepare us for the competitive world we face. Care for those who have not benefited from the great growth of the American economy in the last century. Narrow, at least a little, the gap between those who have done very, very, very well (and pay little or nothing in taxes) and those who could use a little help.
But we are unlikely to get any of these things, because Joe Manchin doesn’t want us to. In the United States Senate, 1.8 million people outvote 81 million. Or put another way, 41 votes beats 59. That’s because Joe M. believes in the filibuster come hell or high water. The high water will be arriving soon because new laws to help protect us from climate change can’t get 60 votes in the Senate. That’s what the filibuster rule requires and that makes the United States Senate about the least democratic institution in any modern democracy.
Just remember, the filibuster has nothing to do with the Constitution. The framers did not think it up. They clearly believed 51 votes out of 100 should be sufficient to pass new laws through the Senate. If anything the filibuster was a mistake written into the Senate rules controlling debate. The rule went unnoticed until segregationists hit upon it as a way to create a deadlock and prevent anti-discrimination laws from being voted on. That is the great tradition Joe Manchin is upholding.
Of course he’s not the only one. But he is one of two or three Democrats willing to torpedo the entire Democratic platform for…. Actually, I’m not sure what for.
Manchin says he has a strong belief that no legislation should pass unless it is bipartisan. I’ve written before about the days when Everett Dirksen and Lyndon Johnson could get together over a bottle and do some horse trading resulting in compromise legislation. But those days are long gone.
Mitch McConnell, the current Republican leader in the Senate, has dug in his heels on voting reform while Republicans across the country are passing law after law designed to suppress Democratic votes in future elections. McConnell also says revisiting the huge two trillion dollar 2017 Trump tax cuts for the rich and for big business is out of the question, and Democratic plans for increased infrastructure spending and social programs are not going to be paid for with tax increases as long as he has his 41 votes.
Meanwhile the turtle from Kentucky is warning that if Republicans regain control of the Senate in 2022 he’ll keep Joe Biden from appointing anyone to the Supreme Court. Probably from appointing anyone to any other court as well. McConnell is sent to Washington by a state with only about four and half million voters. Still he gets to tell Democratic presidents to go to hell any time he wants. Go figure.
Meanwhile Manchin won’t remove the filibuster to pass the voting rights law, the “For the People Act,” without Republican support. And Manchin won’t support use of the so-called “reconciliation” process to side step that blockade on Democrat’s tax and spending proposals, even though the Republicans used that process to pass the 2017 tax cuts.
There is really nothing one can do to solve the Manchin problem in the near term. The only solution for Democrats is to overcome the odds and win more Senate seats in 2022. A Democratic majority not counting Manchin, or the frequently unpredictable and always strange Krysten Sinema of Arizona, would render those two nominally Democratic senators irrelevant. That’s the title both so richly deserve.
At least good old Joe is keeping the political cartoonists busy:
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Scott Gurvey 
Where to start and how to make this short. I like to look at Sen. Joe Manchin lll as a person being more of a idealist or dreamer(which ever suit your understanding) not sometimes in check with the reality of the communication between humans of the United States. This term we use “Bipartisan” has too many meanings when it comes to having equal agreement on either side of the board. It’s like a stalemate in a chess game but, in politics it seems to draw on people fears and draw a point of thought being my way or no way.
Sen. Manchin, a person who has been in politics for some time and should remember during Trumps term bills where pass with little consideration of the Democratic Party. A matter of fact, most of the more important bills are still in stalemate sitting in limbo. what does this say about a so call bipartisan rule in this country? Let me be clear that I do believe that bipartisanship should have a place in Democracy of the United Sates But, it should be used for the well being of the people interest and not for political gain on either side.
Also if Sen. Manchin was really for the people interest, he should be concerned on that gun bill being on the table in his on state of West Virginia.
Theres an article posted by Madlin Mekelburg on Feb 13, 2020 in the Statement about “How many bipartisan bills has Congress passed? Also you can read U.S.Rep.Veronica Escobar D-El Paso, statement to then President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.
Bipartisanship, dreams for some and reality to others?
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