Manchin leaves Democratic Party, files as independent
Manchin leaves Democratic Party, files as independent
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, officially filed as an independent Friday. “My commitment to do everything I can to bring out country together has led me to register as an …
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When I criticize Democrats for getting so little of what they promise done, some apologist is quick to insist that the Democrats haven't had a majority in the senate and that Manchin doesn't count.
Now that someone's saying that your god is imperfect, he's crucial to what is conveniently a majority.
The argument is usually
- we need more democrats or people caucusing with them in office if you want to see more progressive legislation getting passed.
- electing more democrats is MUCH easier to do in the swing states. Electing someone more progressive in a Trump +40 state is going to be damn near impossible
I've had people straight up tell me that Biden never had a Senate majority to work with, right here on lemmy.
Now Democrats magically have the majority their numbers indicate, and it's all thanks to Manchin.
Nuance.
Does Biden have enough people caucusing with his party to win the majority leader gavel and prevent Mitch McConnell from dictating what gets brought to the floor? Yes.
Does Biden have enough progressives to get more progressive stuff passed? No. Two conservative democrats block that.
Arizona will be good place to fight for one of those seats, since Sinema is out and that is a swing state. West Virginia is NOT a swing state, and left leaning people need to look elsewhere for additional progressives. WV is redder than Superman’s underwear. The fact that they’ve elected anyone with a D is an outlier there.
Does Biden have enough progressives to get more progressive stuff passed? No. Two conservative democrats block that.
The party will always find just enough no votes, no matter how big a majority we give them.
2008 begs to differ.
2008? When we gave Democrats a supermajority and they found enough no votes to kill the public option? When we gave the Democrats a supermajority and they didn't bother to codify Roe? That 2008?