After Speaker Pelosi declared that Sen. Manchin's proposals on voting rights signaled that she saw a path to getting voting right passed now, this is a pretty important breakthrough coming from Stacey Abrams as well (she also discusses the importance of our newest national holiday, Juneteenth (via Crooks & Liars):
James Downie, writing on the Washington Post's op-ed page, nails West Virginia Senator and obtuse patsy Joe Manchin for the delusions that the country will pay for:
"Manchin has become the Senate’s Walter Mitty: a man who believes himself the champion of a fantasy and who has hope but no plan. He believes he will save the country by recruiting '10 good Republicans,' even though dreaming doesn’t will into existence that many Republicans who will cast a fair-minded vote. Anything that would snap him back to our partisan reality he either ignores or treats as divisive. Meanwhile, McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party laugh all the way to the ballot box.
That’s what makes Manchin so infuriating. In his mind, he’s the hero of this story. In truth, he’s the patsy. And the country pays the price for his delusions." (our emphasis)
If we give him the benefit of the doubt that he's sincere (but a Pollyanna), he's so focused on what happens in the Senate with his non-existent "10 Republicans" and Senate filibuster rules, he ignores what Republican vandals are doing in dozens of state legislatures with the support of their Governors to disenfranchise Dem voting blocs, actions that can only be stopped through Federal legislation. His bipartisan fetish in the face of corrupt Sen. Moscow Mitch McConnell's "100% focus" to stop President Biden's agenda is destructive, because for the Republicans, there's no "bi" in bipartisan. It may be safe politics in deeply red West Virginia, but it's undermining democracy nationwide.
(photo: "Thank you Mitch, may I have another?" Patrick Semansky /AP)
