When Republicans talk about reaching across the aisle, they are usually referring to working with Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat claims to be a moderate, which is just another way of saying that he doesn’t really fuck with Democrats, which is why hundreds gathered on Monday to protest Manchin’s refusal to take care of those who voted his ass into office.
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As it stands, Manchin is opposed to legislation that would ensure Black people have the same right to vote as their white counterparts. He also voted against a $15 minimum wage increase and was against President Joe Biden’s initial $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
“West Virginia needs a real senator,” Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and organizer of the protest, told the crowd Monday evening.
According to the Associated Press, the group then marched to Manchin’s office where they were unable to meet with the man himself, so they put a poster-size protest letter on his door.
From AP:
The protest was spurred by Manchin’s decision to oppose a landmark reform of U.S. election law, a proposal known as For the People Act. Manchin said last week passing reform on a party-line vote risked further stoking partisan divides.
As a key senator in a divided chamber, Manchin has frustrated progressive Democrats with his reluctance to support several key agenda items.
Many people from neighboring states, including Kentucky and Maryland, drove and rode on buses to make it to the protest. They held signs and charged Manchin with enabling voter suppression.
Manchin, a Democrat in name only, also opposes “eliminating the 60-vote requirement to break a filibuster in the Senate, a step that would allow Democrats to pass top agenda items without Republican votes.”
Which is totally self-serving because as long as the Senate remains evenly divided then guess who remains the king: Manchin.
“He’s standing against his own state,” Barber told Joy Reid. “and they didn’t send him there for that. When you look at this state, it’s one of the poorest states in the nation. But it also has a history; it split from Virginia because it didn’t want to be like the rest of the South. And what they are saying is do right by us in this state.”
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