Is there any chance WV can elect a senator that isn’t a far-right fascist, regardless of the letter next to their name?
Yep.
WV overwhelming supports progressive policies.
It’s just the farthest left they could vote for in the general was Manchin.
???
In WV, Trump beat Biden by damn near FORTY points.
In congressional races that year, the Democrats did even worse and lost by almost forty five points.
In the Senate election, the Democrat candidate lost by a similar margin (about 43 points.)
So I’m super curious how on Earth you expect the Democrats to win there…
WV overwhelming supports progressive policies.
I live a stone’s throw from WV.
They really do not.
They do? I’m in the area, and there are definitely some that support progressive policies, but the majority of the people I know from the area don’t.
Depends on what part of the state your in. Some areas can be quite progressive and others full to the brim with Trump flags. Just depends.
This 1000x this
This means that the West Virginia Senate seat will likely go to a Republican in 2024. And this announcement will raise questions about whether Manchin will run for president as an independent.
I hope he does. He’ll be about as popular as RFK Jr. and similarly get his ass handed to him.
I could be wrong, but I expect he’ll do worse than RFK. Does anyone like Manchin?
There’s a dog I know, like all good bois this dog loves absolutely everybody. Doesn’t matter who you are, this dog has nothing but unconditional love for you. I was sitting around, petting this wonderful dog when Joe Manchin came on the television. This dog stopped the belly rubs, sat up straight and looked me in the eye and said “maaaan that guy’s a motherfucker.”
Of course I was shocked, you can talk?? I asked.
This dog just tilted his head and asked for more belly rubs.
Corpos.
I hope that no one who spent the past 4 years defending him starts pretending that they’ve always disliked him now.
The VAST bulk of people “defending him” never liked him, but recognize the necessity of maintaining a senate majority.
The VAST bulk of people “defending him” never liked him
As of this afternoon.
He’s like 76 too. If I have to vote for an old guy, it’ll be one who actually has a chance of winning and isn’t a conniving backstabber
Corrupt pain in the ass that he was, this is not good news. 2024 was already an awful map for Democrats to hold the Senate, this makes it even harder.
I don’t care for him or his politics but he overwhelmingly supported Biden’s judges and helped keep the Senate blue so I guess I’ll miss him haha.
He also voted to confirm Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, so you can thank him for the overturn of Roe as well.
100% agreed. He’s one of those ‘least worst’ options at this point which is never a good feeling.
100% agreed. He’s one of those ‘least worst’ options at this point which is never a good feeling.
Party leadership seems to like having an abundance of “least worst” options.
As would any Republican senator from WV… Which is what the next Senator will be (Dems lost every race in WV in 2020 by about 40 points.)
Manchin is leaving because he knows he can’t win. Moving to the right has failed as a strategy. There is no farther right for the party to go than Manchin. Trying to find an even bigger sellout than Manchin is a fool’s errand.
A centrist definitely won’t win. The rightmost Democrat in the Senate just admitted he’s unelectable. May as well run a progressive. We just saw a progressive win a statewide race in vermilion Kentucky.
Manchin is leaving because he knows he can’t win.
Either that, or he sold out to run third party with the enlightened centrists.
It’s possible but I would be stunned.
Personally, I think this makes the Senate map much more difficult for Dems. While I hate Manchin, I like him more than almost any Republican.
It’s possible but I would be stunned.
Well, it’s not like the party would ever let it happen anyway.
How’d the progressive win in Kentucky then?
That said, I agree with you that we should run a progressive. Someone like Manchin had an incredibly slim chance. A progressive has a larger chance of pulling off a win I think.
Stop, don’t, come back…
Well, this sucks. Yes, he was an obstructionist asshole and many of his votes were real howlers, but without him, Biden wouldn’t have had ANY majority in the Senate during his first two years.
Given how wretched the Senate map is for Dems, I’m extremely pessimistic about them holding the Senate in 2024. None of the GOP seats look flippable, and the Dems now have to hold every battleground state (Montana, Ohio, etc.).
Democrats have a 51-49 majority in the Senate.
They can still keep control. But with the loss of West Virginia, they have to win re-election for: Tester in Montana, Brown in Ohio, Casey in Pennsylvania, and keep Sinema’s seat in Arizona and the retiring Stabenow’s seat in Michigan.
It will be tough. But it’s doable.
Michigan is probably their easiest state, it’s been going left for awhile now and is probably the most left leaning Midwest state of all lol
Good riddance.
Good. Fuck that guy.
His replacement will be a Republican. He kept the Senate from being a Republican majority.
No. He kept his pockets lined with cash from the coal industry.
People can do multiple things. Would you rather a Republican controlled Senate, with a Republican senator taking cash from the coal industry?
What’s the difference? Joe Manchin still held up legislation, and threw tantrums when he didn’t get his way. Not everybody votes Democrat just because there’s a D next to the name. Hell, if we got rid of first past the post, I’d never vote for a Democrat again. Wouldn’t vote Republican either, just to be clear.
The difference is being able to confirm judicial appointments. We have Gorsuch on the SC because the Republicans had a majority in the Senate and wouldn’t confirm Obama’s appointment.
Manchin is a coal dust covered piece of shit, but he’s the least shitty senator WV will probably ever send to the Senate. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of
progressnot going backwards.We have Gorsuch on the SC because the Republicans had a majority in the Senate and wouldn’t confirm Obama’s appointment.
Manchin voted to confirm Gorsuch.
Yes. Which is one of the many reasons why he’s a piece of shit.
The point I was making is that not having a Democratic majority in the Senate allows the Republicans to pull stupid shit like not confirming appointments, not letting any bills be voted on, and by letting a turtle run the Senate. When we lose Manchin, we’ll be in a situation where the Republicans could prevent any judicial confirmations from happening, assuming they pick up 2 seats.
Yet a lot of legislation still passed. Inflation reduction act, while imperfect is still the most significant climate change legislation America has produced. I cannot imagine a Republican senator would do that.
Biden’s confirmed a boatload of judges with Manchin’s help (the importance of confirming judges should be obvious at this point.)
Was it ideal? Nope. Was it better than having 50 Republican senators? Yes oh God yes.
If they vote for a republican then so be it. Better than a Republican in Dem’s clothes. Besides, maybe when people have an option that is better than “shitty fake dem” versus fascist, maybe they’ll surprise you.
So no Biden appointed judges? Mitch McConnell as majority leader? No committee chairs? You see no problem with any of that?
You are assuming that a good democratic candidate wouldn’t win. Maybe a good democratic candidate never ran because they didn’t want to split the vote.
I invite you to Google West Virginia.
Of course, purity tests are way more important than policy.
I’d rather have a system that didn’t do that but we refuse to improve the constitution so here we are.
I mean, if people under 40 voted at the same rate that people over 40 did, Dems would have a super majority and be able to amend all sorts of stuff in the constitution…
Yep however I won’t miss this drama queen.
Somehow I actually look forward to seeing the pathetic replacement the GOP manages to cough up.
At least we know where we stand.
My real concern is a Trump/ Mansion ticket (yes the misspelling is intentional for marketing reasons)
And he’s chosen to make it far more likely that a Republican will have his seat. Fuck him.
You’re right that he kept the Senate blue these last few years, and that’s why I had no ill will for him and defended him. But now? He’s not only throwing that away, but considering to run third party with a bunch of enlightened centrists against Biden.
Sooooo, what blackmail do they have on him and/or is he trying to run for prez and pull votes from biden? There’s no way he can win, so he’s up to something.
So, who’s the next senator to perfectly represent every last centrist in the country by blocking things Democrats ran on but never had any intention of implementing?
Don’t pretend that there isn’t a line of them just itching to be the next Perfect Centrist.
Angus King is a contender
Isn’t he independent?
Hes in the democratic caucus.
Honestly I thought he was more like Sanders, but apparently not.
I suspect he and Sinema are the tip of the iceberg. There’s a few other corporate ball coddlers in there that were happy to have Manchin and Sinema the the heat that they otherwise might have to take.
In addition to the two centrists you mentioned, six members of the Democratic caucus voted to keep the federal minimum wage at 7.25 an hour (2.13 an hour tipped). If we’re talking candidates for the next rotating villain, I wouldn’t bet against any of those.
Oh look, somebody else is begging for a billionaire-shadow-funded spoiler campaign.
Sorry but RFK JR beat him to the punch.
Horrible senator. Best we’d ever get out of West Virginia though. This only lowers the oddds dems can retain majority leader going forward by quite a bit. And means the Supreme Court will likely become more conservative.
And means the Supreme Court will likely become more conservative.
He voted to confirm Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. He is directly responsible for the Supreme Court becoming more conservative already.
During which administration….
With or without him GOP presidents are more likely to get their nominations.
With him democrats presidents might actually get their nominations.
Also: do you people not know the role of the senate majority leader?
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