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