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Manchin and Sinema just cost Democrats everything

They didn’t want to do jack sh*t, and it cost everyone

By A. Alexis KreiserPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Source: The Hill

Source: WEMU-FM (Ypsilanti, MI)

Just like every other year, 2021 has an election day. Election day means elections, where people vote on candidates from school board directors to mayors - or if you’re in Virginia or New Jersey, governors. You see, the other 48 states elect their governors during the midterm elections, which will take place in 2022. Virginia and New Jersey elect their governors in the years immediately following the presidential election. These elections mean that for Virginians and New Jerseyans, that means gubernatorial ads nonstop wherever you go.

When Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, we were (and frankly may forever be) amid the covid pandemic. That’s not to say that it’s still 2020. However, 2020 and 2021 are very different. For one, the delta variant and covid vaccines weren’t things. For another, Trump is no longer in office, as previously implied. That implication means that the main thing that people might have seen on the news before was how Trump is doing. In contrast, now that Biden is in office, that same question now shifts to him. We only need to look to two democratic senators: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to find that answer out.

Handy-dandy visual aid. Source: University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Many would consider Manchin and Sinema as either conservative democrats or liberal republicans, if not moderate democrats or just moderate outright. While they are not as democratic as AOC or Bernie Sanders, they are not under the republican umbrella of Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy. They are certainly not in the wing of Marjorie Taylor Greene or Mo Brooks. Manchin and Sinema are very much in the middle of the political spectrum.

I couldn't find a graphic of the current senate seating arrangement so have this picture of the exterior of the senate chamber instead as a peace offering. Source: WBUR-FM (Boston, MA)

In the Senate, a bill needs 51 votes to push it towards becoming the law of the land. Right now, there are 50 democratic senators and 50 republican senators. That 51st vote comes from the vice president, who also serves as president of the Senate. At the moment, Kamala Harris holds that position. Her in the situation means that, whatever Biden wants to sign into law, Manchin and Sinema *must* support it for it to get to Biden’s desk. There are seemingly countless things that Biden wants to put into law. These include climate change, infrastructure, social safety nets. These are all crucial things that the vast majority of people seem to favor. Still, Manchin and Sinema didn’t want to help that goal go forward. Maybe they were trying to listen to voters. Perhaps they were in the pockets of big donors. Maybe they didn’t feel like it and shrugged their shoulders at the matter; we may never (honestly) know. The important thing is that they did not support the people’s agenda when they needed to be there the most.

Source: Florida Department of Transporation

Since nothing got passed in terms of any of Biden’s primary legislation, Manchin and Sinema made it look as if the (federal) Democrats as a whole could not do anything done. This reflects poorly on the rest of the Democrats, including Terry McAuliffe, who was running for governor of Virginia, and Phil Murphy, the incumbent governor of New Jersey. Manchin and Sinema have proved to the residents of Virginia and New Jersey that Democrats cannot govern and can’t get anything done, at least in Washington. Thus, the blame can be pointed directly at Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

For those wondering, I did not mention the House of Representatives because Biden’s legislation had, and will continue to have, a much easier time getting through the house than the Senate. As for the other senators from West Virginia and Arizona, Shelly Moore Capito is a Republican. Mark Kelly is another Democrat, but he has in no way acted in the same way that Sinema has. This means that, at least in Arizona, it’s not an issue regarding who voted them in office like it is in West Virginia. It’s just Sinema being Sinema. Manchin has more of a reason to be more centrist than Sinema, but that still doesn’t change the fact that these two, in a way, screwed everyone over.

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About the Creator

A. Alexis Kreiser

Freelance author. I write about what I want which is mostly stuff about science and politics - or my own life.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat: @Lexie_FM

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