It would be great if someone who reads this blog and lives in West Virginia were to call up Joe Manchin’s office and get to know the staff a little. Yes I mean that he needs to hear about impeachment and changing his stance on the filibuster. But also in general, he seems like a (relatively) decent guy who represents a very Trumpy red state, so he has a lot of concerns to balance right now and it would be a good idea if someone could make contact and find out what his folks think we can do to help him do the right thing. His staff are Democrats and even if they’re not all on board with the “Green New Deal”, they all want to expand health insurance, expand collective bargaining rights and a raise the minimum wage to something people can live on. I’d like to know what they think we can do to help firm up the Democratic team and make those things happen.
The same applies to folks like Conor Lamb in PA. Like Manchin, he strikes me as a decent guy trying to both represent his red district and promote core Democratic priorities. If you live in his district, I’d like to hear back about what his people think we can do to help. That’s doubly important since it’s so critical we hold the House in 2022. Obviously Krysten Sinema needs attention too…she strikes me as a bit of a contrarian peacock in the old McCain/Lieberman mold, but that doesn’t mean she is immune to pressure from constituents.
Do you have a conservative Democrat who either needs some encouragement or might be vulnerable in two years? Get in touch with their team and let’s hear back what they think we can do for them.
***
ETA: and of course this comes right after John wrote something along the same lines. Sorry John. Also, call your Senator.
SiubhanDuinne
I had a suggestion, but then I saw the part about “someone who reads this blog.”
;-)
cain
@SiubhanDuinne:
haha – yes. If it was twitter, maybe. :D
I live in Oregon, and every one of my rep is a dirty hippie and I can’t complain. I should call just to be encouraging.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d quibble with the McCain/Lieberman mold, since both their self-images and the images they cultivated were so deeply entwined with the post-9/11, “Greatest Generation”-worshipping notions of the USA as the Last Superpower in the Post-Historical World. Sinema strikes me as someone deeply invested in finding herself interesting.
debbie
It would also be good to contact these conservative Democrats about the national convention Glenn Beck is working on to revise the Constitution to protect states rights as much as he wants. Apparently, they’re almost up to half of the states needed to convene one.
Uncle Cholmondeley
I first learned about the song “Still Alive” here on Balloon Juice, and I am a smarter person for it.
Jeffro
Jamelle Bouie has a good column up in the NYT about this:
Ken
s/Machin/Sinema/g
s/West Virginia/Arizona/g
randal m sexton
@Ken: I like what you sed there.
Barbara
@Jeffro: Jamelle Bouie is one of my favorite people to read, especially among NYT columnists.
Benw
@randal m sexton: seemed kinda awk ward to me
Mactree
Not sure there’s some giant filibuster constituency that Dems need to be concerned about. ‘Was going to vote for Manchin, but overturning the filibuster was the last straw.’ Those people aren’t out there.
Lyrebird
@Benw: ha ha ha
pretend I had the time to add a bash joke, instead of having to go update grades by hand in our stupid glossy course management system
Anya
Contrarian for sure but in McCain/Lieberman level. I think she views herself as an independent, dances to her own drums kinda senator but she’s not Lieberman by any stretch of the imagination, or at least, she hasn’t shown us any signs yet.
As for the other two you’ve mentioned, I think everyone knows how I feel about Manchin but I agree with you about Lamb. He is decent and a great talent.
taumaturgo
All that is needed for the corporatist centrist to fall in line are primaries from the left, not a primary that disputes who could best serve the interest of high dollar donors.
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/21/joe-manchin-stimulus-checks/
MomSense
It seems to me like Manchin and Sinema’s votes would actually have more sway in a 51/50 situation. I think there is a down low power sharing agreement with Collins King Manchin Sinema and a few others and that’s part of their calculation on this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya:
the attacks on Lamb from… certain quarters…. was one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in a long time
ETA: and as if on cue….
Chyron HR
@taumaturgo:
I congratulate you on having enough self-awareness to stop citing explicit Republican propaganda outlets after you were called out on it, but maybe tomorrow you could try not citing any Republican propaganda outlets at all?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MomSense: not very low down, they were telegraphing their plans from election day onward.
They had sixteen Senators and few House members (the “Problems Solvers Caucus”, he typed with a massive eye-roll) on that call
Anya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s dumb. It’s easy to fly your progressive flag high when you’re representing +30 Dem and the fact that these people don’t understand that makes me think they’re so fucking dumb or they’re nihilists.
Just Some Fuckhead
Send Doug Jones some love. He took the hard votes and never whined about it. He was fine with losing reelection because he recognized the goal wasn’t for him to have a lifetime sinecure but to make a difference when he had the chance.
Anya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Still can’t get over Susan Collins’ election. What does a gall need to do for Main voters to not vote for her?
trollhattan
@Chyron HR:
Could this be a Glem sockpuppet (on a top 10k blog) similar to how he do on LGM? It’s at least on brand.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya: it’s infuriating, but it’s yet another example of just how big the gap is between normies and political junkies.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Bouie tweets a lot of “things suck because Democrats LACK THE WILL” stuff and it gets me frustrated with him sometimes. But he’s pointed in the right direction.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, two writers I’ve long been a fan of– Bouie and Brian Beutler– have gone pretty far in on Do Something twitter. The latest is that Dems should have impeached trump at midnight on the night of 1/6-7, because apparently Mitch McConnell would’ve been forced to hold a vote the next day and then… Something would have been Done.
WaterGirl
@Just Some Fuckhead: I really hope there is a good place for Doug Jones in the Biden administration. Doug Jones is a true statesman. We could use a lot more of those.
Jinchi
I always thought the same. In a 51 vote Senate, Joe Manchin has a lot of power. But maybe he doesn’t want to be seen as the reason Joe Biden’s ‘leftwing agenda’ gets passed.
cain
She is going to find that she’s gonna need the Democratic party for the stuff she wants done. And even then what she wants done will be blocked by McConnell. So, she’s going to get nothing independent or not without some level of congeniality with her party.
wvng
A WVinian, I talk to Manchin’s staff occassionally. I also saw him do a hard thing (for the now very red state) back in 2016. I spoke for Hillary at a regional Dem meet and greet and was followed by Joe. He stood up and said that while he knows it wouldn’t be popular in WV, he was supporting Hillary, and gave a laundry list of the reasons why her and why certainly not Trump. He is a very good retail politician and he knows his state. I wish he was more progressive than he is, but if he was he probably couldn’t win here any more. We are not Bobby Byrd’s or Rockefeller’s WV anymore.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@wvng: I always try to remember his post-Newtown efforts on gun safety. I thought he was ending his own political career. And it’s not his fault the voters of Maine prize constituent services over upholding the Constitution, or that chucklehead in North Carolina couldn’t figure out phone sex doesn’t leave a written record.
MisterForkbeard
@trollhattan: He’s not Glem, but he’s been doing this thing lately where he swoops in to post a (barely article related) comment to shit on Dems and then leaves.
Which is better than him sticking around to cause argument. I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised that many around here are just ignoring him.
The Thin Black Duke
@Anya: Be a Democrat.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: maybe if it were “some Democrats lack the will”? =)
(because they do?)
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
?
taumaturgo
@Chyron HR: The pretend party brilliantly exposed.
“The first step toward victory is a government that can act. So, sure, moderate Democrats can keep the filibuster if they want. But they should prepare for when the voting public decides it would rather have the party that promises nothing and does nothing than the one that promises quite a bit but won’t work to make any of it a reality.”Jamelle Bouie, NYT.
The Thin Black Duke
@taumaturgo: Did you sleep through the last four motherfucking years, dude? Jesus.
taumaturgo
Something I’ve learned here, I’m looking forward, not backward.
MisterForkbeard
@The Thin Black Duke: No, he spent most of the last four years railing about how Dems were doing it wrong. I think there was about 3 years of “shoulda been Bernie” in there too.
Which is too bad, because during the last two months he was actually a pretty decent commenter.
Geminid
Kyrsten Sinema was a anti-war and LGBTQ advocate affiliated with the Green Party in the early 2000s, and then won state legislative office as a Democrat. In 2012, she ran for an open Congressional seat and won a very close race. Synema’s opponent claimed she was a “pagan hippie,” and she responded that she believed in a secular government. Once in Congress, Synema became a pagan hippie Blue Dog, to the dismay of many liberals. Congressman Ruben Galego (AZ-7) would not be recruited for the 2018 Senate primary, and Synema won easily and then went on to beat McSally in another squeaker. Synema certainly expects a challenge from the left in 2024, and plans to win a tough primary. She’ll probably vote similarly to Mark Kelly, and that may what Arizona Democrats want.
Ben Cisco
I wish I had a Dem of any kind – my new district is the home of the odious (and idiotic, also seditionist) Mo Brooks. Come on with the ejections/expulsions already!
Geminid
@Ben Cisco: I read that in the upcoming national Congressional reapportionment Alabama is on the bubble, and may lose a Congressional seat. Brooks might have to fight it out with another Congressman. So in 2023 you may be represented by a different Republican asshole. But at least you are not far from Pensacola and Ft. Pickens. Do you ever go?
hw3
When I lived in WV in the 90’s (go Mountaineers) Manchin was decidedly on the right fringes of the Democratic party, but it appears he was prescient in that stance to be able to retain his seat in a state that has swung into the deep red depths of Trumpism. As a career politician, he is savvy bellwether mostly for his own career, but he is a hometown boy who has deep ties to the state. His position as a deal maker in this Senate is going to be interesting to watch in a way his colleague on the other side of the isle (daughter of WV’s historic two-time corruption investigated one-time convicted felon and former three-term governor Arch Moore) will not be expected to be.
J R in WV
@MisterForkbeard:
Many around here put him in the pie safe. I used to take a look with Toggle every once in a while, but it is all purile idiocy, so I don’t even look at any of it any more. It isn’t Glenn G, he can’t imitate terrible grammar like Taumaturgo commits in every post I’ve ever looked at. Not typos or misspellings, just terrible grammar. Sometimes incomprehensible. Or maybe that’s the thought process.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chyron HR: The idea of a viable threat to Manchin from the Left in WV, is a joke. If that opponent somehow magically beat Manchin, they would proceed to lose to whichever mouth-breathing Nazi the GOP could nominate by 50+ points.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Geminid: Sorry for the late reply, just got home to a dark house. Tornado hit my town last night.
My travel has been restricted, I haven’t been out of the state in a year. Maybe once Covid is done I can take a road trip…