Whether this is true is unknown, but it would come as no surprise that Senator Joe Manchin will have enough Bowmore 18 in his chambers to cover scotch o’clock for at least another term, courtesy of his fellow Democrats. Joe’s doing the dirty work, because he can as the voters of West Virginia will not hold it against him, that needs to be done and they can’t do without electoral issues, if not disaster.
The other senators aren’t stupid, but know something their constituents don’t. The contents of the peculiarly-named Build Back Better bill, which apparently consists of a few glorious bullet points about wonderful things that no one could possibly be against. Except Manchin, the “50th” Democrat, which now makes him a racist.
In an e-mail on “The truth about Joe Manchin,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-Bronx/W’chester) tries to use the backlash against his race-baiting of fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin to fundraise for his re-election. Adding to his chutzpah is a warning that “this email mentions strongly racist remarks.”
Talking with CNN’s Don Lemon, Bowman made the odious charge that Manchin’s real issue with the Build Back Better bill is that it “disproportionately supports people of color.” It is, he ranted, “an example of Joe Manchin, as a white man, showing that he doesn’t care about black people, he doesn’t care about Latinos, he doesn’t care about immigrants, he doesn’t care about women, and he doesn’t care about the poor.”
His apparent logic: Manchin is a white millionaire and privileged — ergo, he’s a racist.
To be fair, Bowman exists on the left-most precipice of politics, his rift for not hating Jews enough notwithstanding. Whether it’s what he sincerely believes or just where he has chosen to position himself is unclear, but I assume he means what he says. And what he says, as what others in the Squad say, is that Biden’s BBB bill, whether on its surface or lurking below, is wonderful. And if you’re on the receiving end of policy that enables you to get the things that will make your life easier or better for free, who wouldn’t want it. I know I would, though I suspect there isn’t much in the bill that would benefit me, but there are a few things that will cost me, whether in taxes, inflation or the shredding of the fabric of society.
It’s unlikely that Manchin will disavow his party affiliation, no matter how many people call him mean names like “racist.” If he did, the Republicans would be the majority party and Mitch McConnell the senate leader. My own senior senator, Chuck Schumer, would be left to wander the halls in search of a microphone.
But is that what Bowman seeks to accomplish, to scream “racist” at Manchin for blocking the bill?
The e-mail further quotes what he says are “dozens of calls from supporters of Joe Manchin’s decision,” packed with venom and racial talk not unlike Bowman’s own initial slurs.
Then Bowman doubles down: “And to all of those who believe this is not about race — as long as the beneficiaries of Manchin’s intransigence continue to be primarily white, and those who continue to suffer are poor, women, Black, brown, and Latino, this will always be an issue embedded in racism, in addition to sexism and classism.”
No doubt people who are racist appreciate Manchin’s being the 51st vote against BBB, though why those calls would come into the hands of a first-term congressman whose only accomplishment thus far is being willing to be part of the most extreme left wing of the Dems (with caveats), is a mystery.
But the rhetoric is interesting in that there is little reluctance to cast racist aspersions at their own, even if it could cost them the majority, over a policy dispute. It’s not as if anybody wants to fight for BBB based on substance, the real world virtues of the bill. It’s not as if anybody wants to disentangle this massive omnibus bill to push each individual piece and let it rise or fall on the merits.
It’s that accusing a Dem senator of racism for not putting party ahead of country is a better fit with the attention span of the average voter and, more importantly, Bowman donor. A congressman has to run every two years and that costs money. Better to ask for it now before it’s all used up buying milk.
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It’s not as if anybody wants to disentangle this massive omnibus bill to push each individual piece and let it rise or fall on the merits
FWIW, the Democrats are basically stuck with respect to this point, because of the Senate rules. The only way they can move this bill without facing a filibuster is as one gigantic bill, pursuant to reconciliation. That doesn’t mean no consideration is given to the parts- we’ve seen them swap parts in and out and amend it in various ways. But it does make it difficult/impossible to say “items 2, 3, and 6 are super-popular, and Manchin will support them, so we’ll move them as separate bills”. They have to do one big package and hope they can logroll it through.
That is only true if you believe parts of the bill would not be supported by some of the GOP, which is not supported by evidence or public positions.
The GOP have introduced legislation to lower prescription drugs and would deal on other legislation (other than SALT).
The bigger issue is primary fundraisers are now the extremes who dont like bi-partisan bills but “taking it” to the other side. Luckily our system was designed to keep the extremes out and works well (for the most part) no matter what twitter says.
As for calling Sen. Manchin racist, when people are used to public officials immediately groveling at the first unfounded accusation they decide it is the way to get everything done.
Democrats can’t introduce legislation that is allegedly wildly popular because republicans *might* filibuster it? That’s absurd on its face, because they would be able to (intellectually honestly) point at such a fillibuster as proof that republicans were against said allegedly wildly popular legislation.
No, the real reason is that they’re holding items that they claim are of critical importance hostage for the sake of their social agenda. Just like they would not advance the infrastructure bill in the house when it already had passed the senate—because it made a good hostage.
Just like the Health Care Act from a few years ago, we have to pass the BBB Act so we can see what’s in it, as someone (in)famously said.
I looked up the bill, and reading War And Peace would be a picnic compared to reading this bill. If these bills were written in common language that normal people could understand, we’d probably run every member of Congress out of town on a rail.
Bowman is just throwing out dog whistles because that’s what he thinks his constituents want to hear.
I could use 3 dog whistles.