I think people who were frustrated with him completely misunderstand. The alternative to Joe Manchin isn’t a more normal Dem. It’s no Dem at all. He was a bonus vote, who helped keep control of the senate, allowing Dems to set the legislative agenda and approve judicial appointments.
And frankly, the alternative isn’t even a normal Republican. West Virginia is one of the reddest states in the country with a partisan lean of R+35.5! Joe Manchin will likely be replaced with a super right wing ideologue. Dems had no right to expect more from Manchin.
Sure we do. If he planned on not running for reelection anyway, then he could have given a massive middle finger to the radical right wing constituents he served and dragged Republicans into the 21st century. Instead, he and Sinema shackled progressive policies to a boat anchor and tossed it into Lake Baikal.
lol no. In 2020 Biden lost WV by over 40 points and so did the Dem running for Senate there.
The state legislature has an 89-11 Republican majority in the house of delegates and a 31-3 Republican majority in the Senate.
And it’s only getting redder.
That seat will be lost to republicans for generations. Manchin was only electable as a Dem because he was a very popular governor. He’s the only Dem in the state that could win it.
People cheering for this are absolute fucking idiots.
Pretty low bar, but yeah. He was vilified more than he should have been for short term gains and now the Democrats have lost a seat for the long term that they can’t afford to lose.
He’s been declining in electability over time. He had a high chance of losing the next election to a generic red team candidate, and then the red team candidate turned out to be someone with a lot of name recognition and electability. He was quite unlikely to continue in the WV senator role no matter what, and I don’t think the Dems vilifying him is the cause. If anything, it helped him in WV, just not enough.
Probably true I suppose. But he had SOME chance of being elected. I’m not sure that’s true of anyone else. I guess we’ll see and like I said, I hope I’m wrong.
I know it’s cool to hate him and all, but can West Virginia actually do better than him?
I think people who were frustrated with him completely misunderstand. The alternative to Joe Manchin isn’t a more normal Dem. It’s no Dem at all. He was a bonus vote, who helped keep control of the senate, allowing Dems to set the legislative agenda and approve judicial appointments.
And frankly, the alternative isn’t even a normal Republican. West Virginia is one of the reddest states in the country with a partisan lean of R+35.5! Joe Manchin will likely be replaced with a super right wing ideologue. Dems had no right to expect more from Manchin.
Sure we do. If he planned on not running for reelection anyway, then he could have given a massive middle finger to the radical right wing constituents he served and dragged Republicans into the 21st century. Instead, he and Sinema shackled progressive policies to a boat anchor and tossed it into Lake Baikal.
lol no. In 2020 Biden lost WV by over 40 points and so did the Dem running for Senate there.
The state legislature has an 89-11 Republican majority in the house of delegates and a 31-3 Republican majority in the Senate.
And it’s only getting redder.
That seat will be lost to republicans for generations. Manchin was only electable as a Dem because he was a very popular governor. He’s the only Dem in the state that could win it.
People cheering for this are absolute fucking idiots.
It’s annoying that he hamstrung his party at some key moments but he still voted along with Democrats more than most Republicans do.
Pretty low bar, but yeah. He was vilified more than he should have been for short term gains and now the Democrats have lost a seat for the long term that they can’t afford to lose.
Please, please prove me wrong West Virginia.
He’s been declining in electability over time. He had a high chance of losing the next election to a generic red team candidate, and then the red team candidate turned out to be someone with a lot of name recognition and electability. He was quite unlikely to continue in the WV senator role no matter what, and I don’t think the Dems vilifying him is the cause. If anything, it helped him in WV, just not enough.
Probably true I suppose. But he had SOME chance of being elected. I’m not sure that’s true of anyone else. I guess we’ll see and like I said, I hope I’m wrong.
Yeah exactly. We are losing someone who votes with Dems like 80% of the time to an actual Republican who will be closer to 10%.