Just who is Joe Manchin, the Congressman from West Virginia who just became America’s most powerful Joe Biden senator?
With Democrats winning the two Georgia runoffs and taking control of the Senate, any plans to enact a liberal agenda — including increasing the number of Supreme Court justices — will have to get Manchin’s vote, The New York Times reported.
This is significant because the 73-year-old Manchin is one of the most conservative members of his party, and this could mean trouble for any progressive legislation that might come up — especially Black-specific legislation.
Here are three things Black America needs to know.
Manchin is not for defunding the police. Nor, it seems, is he for police reform. He has slammed efforts by progressive Democrats to cut police department budgets, saying the Democratic Party as he conceives of it does not have “some crazy socialist agenda,” Yahoo reported.
“Defund the police? Defund, my butt. I’m a proud West Virginia Democrat,” Manchin tweeted in November. “We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans’ jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police.”
Twitter responded. “Do you realize everything you just said would make you a Republican in 2020? Where have you been for 4 years?” one person tweeted.
Many questioned if Manchin is truly a Democrat.
“YOU are not a democrat. You sit back& support republican ideas while your state is one of the lowest/highest in every category dealing with unemployment, poverty, being on welfare& foodstamps, homelessness. You do nothing for your state& fit in much better w the republicans,” one tweeted.
Another warned of the power Manchin now wields. “If we end up in a 50 – 50 tie in the Senate, you better remember which party you’re in, which party’s Voters send you back to D.C., & which ones you will starve WITHOUT, if you even think about acting republican. Want to act like one? GO BE ONE!!!”
Manchin, who voted to confirm conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, has “strongly opposed liberal policy proposals such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal,” The Independent reported.
Meanwhile, he has backed several of Donald Trump’s most controversial immigration proposals, such as withholding funding from sanctuary cities and building a physical wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
Manchin says he wants to move the Democratic party back to the middle instead of supporting the growing number of progressive policies it has been pushing.
“I think we have a golden opportunity to bring the country back together and for us to work in the middle,” he told the New York Times. “I’ll tell you the reason why: The numbers are so close with what the Democratic House members lost. For Nancy Pelosi, she’s going to have to work with people that have a more moderate view than some of the people that pushed her from the left.”
Manchin has his share of supporters on Twitter. “Thank you so much Joe Manchin. I’m so sick and tired of those looney left progressives. They have caused enough problems and they are the reasons why so many house seats and senate seats lost. Enough is enough,” one tweeted.
