Politics
F*** You, Joe Manchin
You’re betraying America and burning West Virginia
I have no problem with political centrists. I am one. Centrism is about enacting the will of the voters that elected you, without getting derailed by partisan sectarianism, and losing yourself in meaningless political grandstanding. Joe Manchin is not a centrist, no matter how much he’d like to claim that mantle for himself.
He’s a Republican chameleon with money on his mind, one that finds it politically expedient to say he’s a Democrat, for the purposes of appearing the brave maverick.
But he’s no John McCain. John McCain saw what Donald Trump was about, and so he crushed his insane legislative push to kill Obamacare in the Senate, protecting his Arizona constituents from what he knew was an empty promise from his own party to give voters better healthcare. He knew they wouldn’t and couldn’t deliver, so he killed the bill.
That was bravery. This is cowardice and greed.
Joe Manchin is preventing his voters from getting what they want, and what they voted for. The plan he now opposes contains policies he claims he supports. Lowering prescription drug prices, improving education for our children, and improving healthcare for Americans? Check.
Joe Manchin gave away the plot simply by the way he did this volte-face reversal.
He went on Fox News to broadcast his move, after spending the last week telling Joe Biden that he was still negotiating in good faith. He might as well have announced his plan from Mar-a-Lago, or maybe Trump Tower.
While Manchin is protecting his energy-related business interests and soothing his nervous friends in the fossil fuels lobby in Washington, D.C., back home in West Virginia his constituents are suffering from the coal economy he’s propping up. They have the second worst health outcomes in the entire United States, not unrelated to coal mining.
Senator Manchin’s claim that he’s worried about inflation is a convenient fig leaf for his real agenda. Leading economists have pored over the plans in BBB (Build Back Better), and have widely concluded that it will put money into American wallets, which will then be spent in the American economy. It will reduce inflation in the long-term by investing in Americans.
In other words, it’s the exact opposite of the coal extraction economy in Appalachia, which has decimated the environment while leaving nary a trace of the immense wealth it’s accumulated in the communities in which it mines. Laid off miners dying from black lung can’t even pay their medical bills, while rich lobbyists and coal executives are drinking red wine on Manchin’s boat.
It’s disgusting.
Joe Manchin received more money from the fossil fuels industry (coal, oil, and natural gas) than any other U.S. Senator this election cycle, and more than double the second leading recipient. That’s a lot of cash, considering that the fossil fuels lobby keeps money flowing into our politics. It’s like mining operations that quietly dump pollution into West Virginia’s rivers, lakes, and streams.
It never ends, and it all adds up to the pollution of our environment and our politics.
It’s not only political cash, either. He founded a coal brokerage firm of his own, Enersystems, a company he formed in the 1980’s that’s now controlled by his son, Joe Manchin IV. He’s received millions of dollars in dividends over the years, and upwards of 70% of his considerable net worth is parked there.
He doesn’t like to talk much about that.
He’s profiting mightily on our misery. Instead of bringing the vital economic energy that would accompany a big clean energy push in West Virginia, he’s content to let his cash multiply where it is, and refrain from rocking the oil derrick. That means West Virginians will be forced to continue to support a dying coal industry that is economically and ecologically exploiting the communities where it still exists.
Don’t tell America you’re worried about our economy, Joe. Tell the truth. You’re worried about protecting your donors and your own bottom line.
It’s clear as day.
This isn’t just about fighting climate change, which has reared its ugly head more and more in the United States, with freakish tornadoes and relentless wild fires.
It’s also not just about doing something positive for your voters, something that helps them live better, healthier, wealthier lives.
This is about political power.
When you obliterate the entire Democratic agenda in one fell swoop, you empower a radicalized Republican Party to retake Congress, the Senate, and the White House. They just attempted a coup, and are in the process of suppressing voters across the country based on insane lies about nonexistent fraud in the last election.
They crave a right-wing dictatorship in the mold of Pinochet and Putin.
But you already know all that. You know that the Republican Party cannot be trusted. Now now. Yet you are handing them the midterm elections on a silver platter, knowing they will decimate Democrats if you fail to pass their legislative agenda.
I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that you’re in bed with Trump’s Republicans, or cashing in on fossil fuels at the expense of the people that trust you to represent their interests at the highest level.
Politicians like you are the reason Americans are fed up with politics.
You’re betraying your party and your state at a critical juncture in American history, and no one will forget the man that bled the Democrats dry right before the midterm elections. It’s truly foul.
You promised Joe Biden you’d work to find a middle ground. You’ve broken your word, and you’ve insulted the president while humiliating the party you claim to represent. You’ve made a laughingstock of yourself, too.
Your corruption is obvious, and not well hidden.
If nothing else, you’ve shown everyone your true colors. You’d fit right in with the rest of the greedy scam artists in the GOP.
You’re a disgrace, not a maverick.
We know what you’re about. It isn’t hard to tell.
Subscribe here for free to see my latest work
Want to read more of my writing? Sign up for a Medium membership for $5/month to receive unlimited access to all my new writing along with all the other talented writers publishing on Medium. I’ll receive a small referral fee with no increase to your cost if you sign up using the above link.