Yves right here. Whereas this submit displays the “Ding, dong, the witch is useless” college of thought concerning Manchin selecting to pack it in for good as a Senator (though awful ballot numbers little doubt helped), his departure does pose issues for company Democrats. Nonetheless, Manchin was an anomaly. Republicans have rock stable management of state authorities. From Balletopedia:
West Virginia has a Republican trifecta and a Republican triplex. The Republican Celebration controls the workplaces of governor, secretary of state, lawyer normal, and each chambers of the state legislature.
And in Congress, Manchin is the lone Democrat from West Virginia. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito is a Republican, as are the state’s three Representatives. So it’s hardly a shock that Manchin usually acted like a Republican. It will be a situation of political survival. That isn’t to say he didn’t truly lean that method.
Having mentioned that, Staff Dem did a lot better than anticipated yesterday. I attribute that considerably to the Republicans refusing them to distance themselves from an hard-core anti abortion stance. That’s not going to alter between now and November 2024.
A couple of observations from the Twitterverse:
Progressives have been bullied and threatened by the Biden administration as payments have been being debated within the first two years, however Biden by no means laid a glove on Joe Manchin. By no means criticized him, regardless that he killed the vast majority of his agenda. Let’s be sincere, Biden all the time agreed with…
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) November 9, 2023
Joe Manchin’s legacy ought to without end be that he proudly bought his insurance policies, statements and votes off to the very best bidder.
He’s a mercenary, not a public servant.
This video of an Exxon lobbyist bragging about paying him to kill local weather motion must be what he’s remembered for. pic.twitter.com/J2tWDBWyBf
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) November 10, 2023
With Manchin taking a knee, Dems really want Bob Casey to win PA. There’s no path to holding the Senate majority with out him. As the one state with no GOP major, this can be a key race to look at and assist. Geaux. Give. Assist! https://t.co/yMnc7beBen
— James Carville (@JamesCarville) November 9, 2023
By Julia Conley, workers author at Frequent Desires. Initially printed at Frequent Desires
Progressives on Thursday have been unsurprised to listen to that right-wing Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin has determined to not search reelection subsequent yr, following current polling that confirmed him 13 factors behind Republican Gov. Jim Justice—however expressed frustration over the conservative senator’s legacy of tanking the Democratic Celebration’s agenda as leaders insisted he was the one Democrat who may presumably win the approval of voters in his dwelling state of West Virginia.
After Manchin launched a video asserting he’ll retire from the Senate seat he’s held since 2010, former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner (D) famous that financial justice and rights advocates have lengthy been informed they “needed to sacrifice each progressive reform so we may maintain on to a blue seat in West Virginia.”
“Now, he’s vacating the seat,” mentioned Turner.
I’m sufficiently old to recollect when neoliberals mentioned we needed to sacrifice each progressive reform so we may maintain on to a blue seat in West Virginia.
Now, he’s vacating the seat. https://t.co/x3Cs736xVJ
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) November 9, 2023
The senator has outraged progressives in recent times by refusing to hitch his occasion in backing broadly standard reforms. He made quite a few calls for to cut back the anti-poverty and local weather provisions in President Joe Biden’s signature Construct Again Higher Act in 2021 earlier than lastly killing the invoice over its inclusion of the expanded baby tax credit score—a program that greater than 300,000 kids in his personal state benefited from earlier than it expired however that Manchin falsely claimedcould be utilized by mother and father to purchase medicine.
He additionally joined Republicans in 2022 to block laws codifying abortion rights months earlier than the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade and helped the GOP push to incorporate language in a debt restrict deal this yr that will expedite the development of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in his state. Native advocates have denounced the mission, which may result in fossil gasoline emissions equal to dozens of coal-fired energy vegetation.
The state, mentioned Denali Nalamalapu, communications director of the Defend Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition, is now witnessing “firsthand the repercussions of Sen. Joe Manchin’s insatiable greed.”
“Throughout his time in workplace, Manchin served the fossil gasoline business and lined his pockets with the payoff,” mentioned Nalamalapu. “Whereas he parades round his ‘victory’ in fast-tracking MVP development, his actual local weather legacy is the mortal risk to Appalachians and the planet posed by the pointless, reckless, fracked gasoline mission.”
Nalamalapu expressed hope that West Virginians might in the end be represented by “a local weather champion who will serve their pursuits within the broader world shift in the direction of a renewable future, not a robber baron who scurries away as soon as he has maxed out his political fossil gasoline earnings.”
Manchin instructed his political profession is probably not over as he mentioned he can be “touring the nation and talking out to see if there’s an curiosity in making a motion to mobilize the center and convey Individuals collectively”—which former U.S. Housing and City Growth Secretary Julián Castro translated as: “Keep tuned. I need to run for president.”
Progressive strategist Sawyer Hackett famous that Manchin’s objection to the expanded baby tax credit score was a major issue when the kid poverty charge shot up final yr, following an historic discount that was attributed to the initiative.
“Not an important legacy to kickstart a long-shot bid for president,” mentioned Hackett.
Joe Manchin is sort of single-handedly guilty for five million kids falling again into poverty final yr.
Not an important legacy to kickstart a protracted shot bid for President.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) November 9, 2023
Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts, mentioned that with out Manchin, Democrats should now guarantee they maintain onto Senate seats in various states to be able to keep their slim majority.
That is as slim a path to a Senate majority because it will get, nevertheless it exists, & Dems did defy developments in 2022:
Maintain onto all Biden states (definitely not a stretch based mostly on the 2022/2023 cycles), & get 2 longtime incumbents to outlive (difficult, however neither is a given in any respect for GOP).
— Taniel (@Taniel) November 9, 2023
However with Manchin prone to lose to Justice if he had sought reelection, Nichanian added, “it’s a stretch to explain Manchin’s retirement as an enormous change to the Senate math for 2024.”
Writer and 350.org co-founder Invoice McKibben mentioned Manchin’s exit marks the beginning of one other race: “to see who will exchange him as the largest collector of marketing campaign money from the oil and gasoline business.”
