Love Mike Luckovich and understand the sentiment, but returning Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema is not the answer. That would be a disaster.
I live in California. I am a PROgressive on the far left — supported Bernie in the 2016 primary and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 primary (but voted for the Democratic nominee both years). If Manchin was in our bright blue state, we would throw his sorry ass out in a second. But he is not in California. A Kamala Harris or a Jerry Brown or an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could never win a seat in West Virginia, a state that Trump carried in 2020 by a margin of 41.7%.
Yeah, Manchin is very frustrating. Yes, he is corrupt and in the pocket of Big Carbon, Big Pharma and a bunch of other Big Special interests. He represents his billionaire donors, even though there is not a single billionaire living in the state of West Virginia.
But if he were to leave, we would get a solid Trumper and McConnell would be senate majority leader.
Right now, Joe Manchin is the only thing standing between us and Senate Majority Leader MITCH McCONNELL.
Manchin is the difference between Biden getting his nominations and much of his legislation to the floor or McConnell blocking everything wholesale and, for all his double-speak, Manchin has consistently been the 50th vote we needed to get to a tie that Kamala could then break. Manchin has voted with the Democrats far more than he has stabbed us in the back, though of course it is the backstabbings we remember.
Manchin is operating in a world that works for him to win as a Democrat in a solid red pro-Trump state.
Love Mike Luckovich and understand the sentiment, but returning Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema is not the answer. That would be a disaster.
I live in California. I am a PROgressive on the far left — supported Bernie in the 2016 primary and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 primary (but voted for the Democratic nominee both years). If Manchin was in our bright blue state, we would throw his sorry ass out in a second. But he is not in California. A Kamala Harris or a Jerry Brown or an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could never win a seat in West Virginia, a state that Trump carried in 2020 by a margin of 41.7%.
Yeah, Manchin is very frustrating. Yes, he is corrupt and in the pocket of Big Carbon, Big Pharma and a bunch of other Big Special interests. He represents his billionaire donors, even though there is not a single billionaire living in the state of West Virginia.
But if he were to leave, we would get a solid Trumper and McConnell would be senate majority leader.
Right now, Joe Manchin is the only thing standing between us and Senate Majority Leader MITCH McCONNELL.
Manchin is the difference between Biden getting his nominations and much of his legislation to the floor or McConnell blocking everything wholesale and, for all his double-speak, Manchin has consistently been the 50th vote we needed to get to a tie that Kamala could then break. Manchin has voted with the Democrats far more than he has stabbed us in the back, though of course it is the backstabbings we remember.
Manchin is operating in a world that works for him to win as a Democrat in a solid red pro-Trump state.