Joe Manchin IS A Fraud and Democrats Finally Admit It by Robert Covington Jr.
In less than a week, many parts of the world will be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, a man that represented the best humanity has to offer. He personifies transformative love, empathy, compassion, humility, sacrifice and living for a cause.
Senator Joe Manchin, a professed Catholic, represents the complete opposite of Jesus Christ and the fact that he decided to announce the devastating news to President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party a week before Christmas, that he will not support the Build Back Better legislation, which is transformative policy that focuses on drastically reducing child poverty with extending the tax credit, free Universal Pre-K, codifies paid family leave, prescription drug reform, major investment in climate, increases Medicaid coverage, and expands childcare and free lunch programs for children that would impacts millions of people — finally informs individuals that were still in denial, that Manchin is a man of poor character, extremely selfish and at his core, a sadistic man.
What’s even more revealing is how he did it. Manchin decided to make the announcement on Fox news, a white nationalist, propaganda network that works overtime to destroy democracy and embolden the authoritarian ambitions of Republican politicians that visit the network on a weekly basis. He chose Fox because that is the audience that he is most comfortable with and it gave him the platform to speak to his constituents of West Virginia like they are stupid and ignorant, which he did. Case in point, as part of his announcement, Manchin actually said this: “If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it.”
The audacity to say that if he went back to West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the nation and say that the BBB plan reduces prescription drug prices out of pocket, provides you and your children food security, financial child support and paid family leave to be with your family without the worry of losing your job and having your income maintained, that West Virginians would reject this — is a blatant lie and reeks of his narcissism, poor character and self-interest that fuels his dishonesty that is spoken with such ease. Manchin doesn’t want to speak with West Virginians because if he did, as polls suggest, they would tell him to be one of its strongest supporters.
But this was never about West Virginians. This is about a shallow, corporate friendly, compromised, conflict of interest man that is bought and paid for, who also is a racist with a callous and restrictionist worldview that embraces a have and have not mentality to justify his privileges and advantages that he’s cultivated in a lifetime of politics.
President Biden and the Democratic Party, recognizing the fragility of a 50–50 Senate, understandably to a degree, had to walk a fine line with public criticism because they know they are dealing with a sensitive, cowardly, unprincipled weak man that feels no strong allegiance to the Democratic cause or the agenda. But all of that came to a head with his bad faith decision to say he’s a “No” on the BBB plan. The White House put out a blistering statement calling Manchin a liar and operated in bad faith. The Progressive Caucus, which told everyone that Manchin was going to do this, put out a strong statement saying that Manchin is not a man of his word and was exposed for being just that. Senator Bernie Sanders is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to put the bill on the floor and let Manchin actually vote no and live with the ramifications.
It’s clear that the months of watching Joe Manchin abuse, embarrass, lie, align with Republicans on core issues, his engagement in performative theater that always end with Manchin keeping the filibuster in place and democracy in peril has come to a boiling point with their statements of blasphemy on the conduct of Joe Manchin.
I think they finally realize that he’s not one of them and never will be. Joe Manchin really enjoys upsetting progressives, annoying moderates and placating Republicans. The fear of him going over to the Republican Party was supplanted with a principled rebuke of his actions. The Democratic Party and their constituents needed to see this.
It’s not clear what will happen next because tensions are high and disappoint is real. But at least Democrats that were still operating in blind faith are clear about a man that cannot be trusted. Under no circumstances will Manchin end the filibuster and the Republican assault on democracy and voting rights will continue unabated because of men like Joe Manchin. Democrats must fight on, but at least they know that they have an enemy from within.
Follow me on twitter: @robcovingtonjr
