Thursday, June 10, 2021

The House of Mansion


If you misspell Manchin, you get Mansion. Actually, you don’t imagine Manchin inhabiting an auspicious dwelling. He's too much a man of the people and definitely doesn’t want to step on his Republican colleagues. Or is the problem electoral politics again? He was elected with a little over 3% of the vote in a state where Trump got almost 40%. Pollsters have always played a big role in elections and you’re not in politics if you don’t pay attention to your constituency, but the intractability of Republican senators who wouldn’t even vote to appoint a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection is only matched by the behavior of Democrats like Manchin and Krystin Sinema who also play close to the vest. It’s one thing to be bipartisan and another to get cold feet—which ultimately results in a failure to lead. Politicians by definition walk a fine line between responding to the will of the electorate and standing up for principle. Manchin's line is quite fine indeed. Under the veil of uniting the nation, he may ultimately be helping to unravel democracy itself by both failing to repeal the filibuster and pass HR.1 ("Manchin Vows to Block Democratic Voting Rights Bill and Preserve Filibuster,NYT, 6/9/21). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the work of the embattled LBJ, who was no saint, but knew how to twist wrists. Oklahoma is famous for it’s twisters. That’s how Dorothy landed in Oz. Congress may not possess a wizard, but it certainly needs a miracle.

Read "Is America Suffering From Schizophrenia?" by Francis Levy, The Screaming Pope

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