Say goodbye to Joe Manchin

Good. Bye.

Democrats need to stop freaking out about Joe Manchin’s decision to not seek reelection to the United States Senate.

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Even when Manchin isn’t voting for Republicans, he’s doing all he can to stymie meaningful reform of the courts: he’s against court expansion, against term limits, and hasn’t said boo about the ongoing ethical disaster that is Justice Clarence Thomas. Those stances of course link up to Manchin’s legendary refusal to support any kind of pro-democracy Senate reform, and his steadfast support of the Senate filibuster—an antidemocratic tool to prop up minority rule.

Indeed, it’s hard to find a piece of Democratic legislation or policy position that hasn’t been made weaker and less effective because of Manchin’s presence. He is the guy who watered down Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic stimulus program—then turned around and didn’t vote for it anyway. He refused to extend the Covid relief child tax credit, the lapse of which has doubled the child poverty rate. He’s been a thorn in the side of every piece of environmental legislation that has come up while he’s been in the Senate, and he’s been a consistent opponent of voting rights legislation, including the “For the People” Act, which would have made voter registration automatic and restored voting rights to convicted felons.

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There’s also the sheer amount of time Democratic leaders have had to waste massaging Manchin’s mercurial political whims. Every second Biden or Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has to spend begging Manchin to not stab America in the back is time they could have spent leaning on Romney, or Susan Collins, or just crafting a better, more unified message for the Democratic Party. And don’t even get me started on all the cash we’ve had to funnel to West Virginia in every budget package to secure Manchin’s vote.

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I would argue that in most cases the need to appease Manchin has caused Democrats to be politically weaker than they would have been if they just had to deal with a regular moderate Republican. If you have to make a deal with Romney, at least that deal gets the benefit of appearing “bipartisan.” With Manchin, the call is coming from inside the house: He forces Democrats to pass Republican-appeasing legislation but then own all of it, while the GOP gets much of what they want and remains unified in its unwillingness to govern.

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We have plenty of examples of moderate Democrats—be they Jon Tester in Montana, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, or freshly reelected Governor Andy Beshear in Kentucky—who run in red states as Democrats, and win. It’s hard. But it is possible. And it can be done without suffocating the planet in greenhouse emissions. The sooner the Democratic Party stops trying to run wannabe Republicans in red states, the better.

  Elie Mystal @ The Nation

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.