Wednesday, 10 March 2021

What Joe Manchin's dickishness teaches us about Republicans

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What Joe Manchin's dickishness teaches us about Republicans

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) forced President Biden to significantly water down the Covid/Stimulus bill. Manchin’s hissy fit shows us the power Republican Senators had to stand up to Trump, and didn’t.

John Aravosis

Mar 10

We’re all aware by now that US Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) — Manchin more than Sinema — in watering down President Biden’s Covid/Stimulus bill.

The Senate is divided 50-50, so unless we get some Republican votes — which grow ever scarcer the more extreme the GOP becomes — we need the support of every Democrat to pass anything. That gives each Democratic Senator immense power: the power to say “no.” Joe Manchin knows this, and is milking it for all it’s worth.

What Manchin’s doing isn’t particularly novel. It is, however, something that we haven’t seen in years, because Republicans controlled the Senate (and White House), and they refused to lift a finger to challenge Donald Trump on anything. In addition to being supremely annoying, Manchin’s hissy fit shows us the power Republican Senators had to stand up to Trump, and didn’t.

And this is what so annoyed me about the GOP’s spinelessness the past four years. I worked for a US Senator. I witnessed first-hand how Senators could, and would, wield the Senate’s arcane rules in order to get their way, even if it meant occasionally standing up to a President of their own party. It was just the way the Senate worked — the body was built to seek consensus, which meant empowering even a minority of one.

So why didn’t we see any Republicans ever standing up to Trump by throwing a wrench into his proposals and demanding they be watered down? The only time I recall a Republican Senator actually standing up to Trump legislatively, when it really mattered, was John McCain’s (R-AZ) “no” vote on repealing Obamacare. McCain knew he had the power of one, and wielded it deftly. He struck when it mattered most to Trump. And took Trump down, hard. (In all fairness, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) also voted against repeal.) But even McCain — his Obamacare vote a rare, but important, exception — was otherwise all talk and no action when it came to reining in Trump’s excesses.

This is why I was always so disappointed when Republican Senators like Jeff Flake of Arizona or Ben Sasse of Nebraska would talk tough about Trump, but never do anything about it. Each had the power of one — they had the ability to force Trump to change his legislation, policies and words — and they chose not to. And seven people died as a result.

Joe Manchin’s behavior is just another illustration of the degree to which the Republican party chose to be neutered by Donald Trump.

Other Interesting Stuff

For fearless media commentary from a proudly progressive perspective, check out my friend Eric Boehlert’s newsletter, Press Run, at pressrun.media.

I just did a fun Zoom interview with the brothers who run liberal anti-Trump Super PAC MeidasTouch. They’ve become a real powerhouse in just the last year that they’ve been around. It was a really interesting, and quite funny, chat. Have a look: