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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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He's a dem who doesn't seem to share any views with other Dems.
He singlehandedly delayed or outright prevented many large bills from going through.
When Bidens term is looked back upon, Manchin will be the force that prevented Biden from pushing though some of his more progressive plans.
He doesn't always vote with the democrats, but if a republican had won that seat, they would be much more likely to side with the republicans.
He hasn't done anything single-handedly, in every case where he gets blamed, it's because there's a huge Republican minority opposing something and he joins them. You can never blame him unless you're first blaming all the Republicans he's joining.
He's a lightning rod because people think that for some reason he should vote with the democrats every time, but that's not realistic. He's a democrat from a very conservative state. The problem isn't Manchin, it's that they have to rely on Manchin and Sinema so much. If the democrats had a firm majority, his votes wouldn't matter. Instead he's often the deciding vote on something, so if he doesn't support it it fails. But, again, it would be worse if a Republican had won instead. Right now the senate is 51/49, and the Democrats can occasionally pass things. If Manchin had lost it would be 50/50 and they'd virtually never pass anything.
When people look back at Biden's term, they'll note that it was the Republican who blocked everything, and that the 51/49 senate was too close to pass anything meaningful. Sinema and Manchin will probably get a mention, but anybody objective will note that it was the Republicans who blocked things, not Manchin and Sinema.
Democrats can actually pass bills 50/50: if the US Senate ever has a tie vote, the Vice President gets to pick a winner.
Which was 100% predictable and expected.
Including the fact that there are plenty of other Democratic senators who believe the same shit he does and vote accordingly but he's doing what he agreed to do as the public whipping boy.
There are two things he's useful for: having a Democrat as Senate Majority Leader, and he actually does side with Dems on voting rights most of the time (even co-sponsoring bills). That's it. Other than that, might as well let the seat fall to a Republican for all the good he does.
With his position as swing vote, Manchin is arguably the most powerful person in the world. He's doing fuck all with that power besides obstructing things. If I were a W. Virginia voter with sense, I would be asking how he's using his position to help W. Virginia. You want to bring jobs and industry and sweet government pork to your state, Joe? You're in a prime position to do it.