While he’s abroad, President Joe Biden’s agenda at home is stalled.
This is both his administration’s fault and leftist politicians who misinterpreted November’s election results because they’re removed from reality. Instead of leaving their partisan social media bubbles, progressives have blamed one man: U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin. Perhaps if they opened a map or learned about the man, Democrats would realize he’s an asset.
More on the West Virginian in a bit.
Compared to the clown car of blatherskites on stage, Biden spoke as a moderate throughout the presidential debates, but upon his narrow victory — he won by fewer than 45,000 votes in three states — a cadre of left-wing historians brainwashed the new administration into thinking the 46th president could be the next FDR or LBJ.
That idea is detached from political reality.
Johnson and Roosevelt won landslide elections and held large congressional majorities. The current U.S. Senate is 50-50, and Democrats’ House majority is minuscule and dwindling.
Additionally, tens of millions of Biden voters cast ballots against Donald Trump rather than for the former vice president; this also explains how the GOP picked up more than a dozen seats in the House last fall.
Biden’s $2 trillion COVID “relief” boondoggle was reportedly popular, giving White House a false impression their entire incoherent agenda would also be well-received. That’s false. The president must change gears and deal with facts on ground.
“He was a legislator for decades, so Biden has an ability to reset expectations and turn into a Great Compromiser,” a political analyst told Alpha News. “So stop looking to hit grand slams and try for singles. Joe Manchin is doing Democrats great favors, while progressive bullies operate outside of how the system works. The GOP did well last year, and the only reason Chuck Schumer isn’t still the minority leader was Trump’s ‘stop-the-steal’ chaos in Georgia.”
The West Virginia senator is helping his party in the long and short-term. He’s bringing his colleagues to where most voters are, because the party’s messaging is out of touch. It’s clear Washington progressives cannot understand someone who seemingly puts country before party.
As proof, Manchin recently proclaimed he would not support the “For the People Act,” Democrats’ unconstitutional bill to federalize our elections.
In the next few days, he was caustically denounced as a racist, a Jim Crow enabler, a white supremacist, and had his intelligence questioned by enraged colleagues and disingenuous media who cannot argue the merits.
Like Manchin, first term Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, is mature and trying to work across the aisle. Unlike the president, vice president and most Democrat senators, she’s visited the border, yet is ridiculed behind her back by radical septuagenarian Sens. Mazie Hirono, Bernie Sanders and Sheldon Whitehouse — all of whom represent deep blue states, and therefore lack accountability.
Manchin and Sinema likely are not the only Democrat senators reticent to embrace a far left agenda, but they’re the only intrepid politicians speaking publicly. Sens. Maggie Hassan (NH), Mark Kelly (AZ) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) are up for re-election next year in swing states, whereas Manchin and Sinema aren’t.
“Overlooked in this backlash is that Manchin is actually taking heat for many other Democratic senators who can’t afford to be as out front as Manchin, who comes from a solidly Republican state,” Jonah Goldberg recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Progressive activists want to oust Manchin and Sinema in favor of more pliable team players. ‘Help us find the next AOC to replace Manchin and Sinema’ was how one progressive PAC positioned its strategy. This is also unhinged from reality. Manchin is almost surely the only Democrat who can get elected in his state. You can have a centrist Democratic senator from West Virginia, or no Democratic senator at all.”
It’s improbable Democrats will learn, because noxious congressmen from fringe districts remain their loudest voices.
To have any legislative successes, Biden should ignore the partisan rants and begin catering to Manchin.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
