Senator Joe Manchin–a traitor to the Democratic Party and its principles

See,

Philip Bump, “Is the choice for Democrats Joe Manchin or the minority?” Washington Post, February 25, 2021 (5:15 p.m. EST).

The Least Loyal Democrat

There are people who will take advantage of other people when the latter are vulnerable. There are those who will take merciless advantage of hungry and thirsty people after a hurricane, by price-gouging.

There are those who will extract the last possible advantage from a dying man to give him what he needs to survive.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) has shown himself to be such a man, squeezing the last dollar out of unemployment benefits from a poor family in Queens, or Chicago or Houston or Atlanta, to score points with the Trump supporters in his state. He doesn’t need to do this. He is not up for re-election until 2024.

No, there must be some darker motive at play here. Is he looking for a lucrative position in the private sector? The presidency of a university perhaps? Is he beholden to a certain donor or group of donors who hold his future in their hands? Could his motive be related to someone in his family?

Or does he simply enjoy being in the spotlight, and wielding the enormous power political fortune has placed in his hands.

With the Senate split 50-50, his vote is of critical importance to the Democrats. And Boy does he know it!

As he nickles and dimes poor people who desperately need help, NOW, he has no shame as he betrays his fellow Democratic Senators and the principles for which the Democratic Party stands.

Well, this is politics, you say. Yes, this is the way the Republicans play the political game.

How many more times is Joe Manchin going to betray the Democratic Party and its principles between now and January 3, 2023, when the new Senators take their place?

The Democrats don’t need to say so now, but they should “primary” him the next time he is up for election, or at least consider this possibility. He is a disgrace to the memory of Robert Byrd, the long-serving Democratic Senator from West Virginia who he follows.

The Trenchant Observer

About the Author

James Rowles
"The Trenchant Observer" is edited and published by James Rowles (aka "The Observer"), an author and international lawyer who has taught International Law, Human Rights, and Comparative Law at major U.S. universities, including Harvard, Brandeis, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Kansas. Dr. Rowles is a former staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States OAS), in Wasington, D.C., , where he was in charge of Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and the United States, and also worked on complaints from and reports on other countries including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As an international development expert, he has worked on Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Judicial Reform in a number of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Russian Federation. In the private sector, Dr. Rowles has worked as an international attorney for a leading national law firm and major global companies, on joint ventures and other matters in a number of countries in Europe (including Russia and the Ukraine), throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. The Trenchant Observer blog provides an unfiltered international perspective for news and opinion on current events, in their historical context, drawing on a daily review of leading German, French, Spanish and English newspapers as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other American newspapers, and on sources in other countries relevant to issues being analyzed. Dr. Rowles speaks fluent English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, and also knows other languages. He holds an S.J.D. or Doctor of Juridical Science in International Law from Harvard University, and a Doctor of Law (J.D.) and a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.=LL.M.), from Stanford University. As an undergraduate, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, also from Stanford, where he graduated “With Great Distinction” (summa cum laude) and received the James Birdsall Weter Prize for the best Senior Honors Thesis in History. In addition to having taught as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, Dr. Rowles has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs (CFIA). His fellowships include a Stanford Postdoctoral Fellowship in Law and Development, the Rómulo Gallegos Fellowship in International Human Rights awarded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a Harvard MacArthur Fellowship in International Peace and Security. Beyond his articles in The Trenchant Observer, he is the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles on subjects of international and comparative law. Currently he is working on a manuscript drawing on some the best articles that have appeared in the blog.