Here is the senior senator representing West Virginia, the infamous DINO, Joe Manchin. I say he represents West Virginia, but that is misstatement: Joe Manchin only represents extremely wealthy mining and energy interests (he is a multimillionaire thanks to his family coal company, which he has certainly not divested from). If everyone else in West Virginia died horribly, I doubt Manchin would notice or care, so long as his coal baron buddies continued to prosper. In slavish deference to his masters who keep pouring barrels of crude money on him, Manchin is busy destroying the infrastructure deal, the reconciliation deal, the voting protection bill, filibuster reform, DC statehood, and every other piece of Democratic legislation which requires his vote (which is all of them, thanks to the electoral advantages which Republicans have built into the system for themselves).
Why am I picking on Joe Manchin? (other than the fact that this crooked, self-satisfied oaf is about to deliver the nation into the anti-democratic hands of the fully Trumpified Republican party?) Isn’t the other West Virginia senator (some anonymous fascist) much worse? Isn’t Manchin’s bland centrist corruption, fairly normal and unremarkable in our nation? Well yes to both of those last two questions…and perhaps that is what makes me most angry of all. Corruption is becoming so rampant in our nation that it is unremarkable. After railing against the political apathy of people who say “everybody is equally corrupt”, behold, the Democrats’ last chance to pass meaningful legislation is being destroyed by someone who is indeed equally corrupt. Gah! Why not just lay back and LET the Republicans burn down the Reichstag and goosestep all over the constitution?
When I was growing up, earmarks were the big thing in Washington. Swing senators would vote for huge omnibus bills because they had expensive, bloated gifts for the constituents tacked onto the end. If faced with today’s choices, the senior senator from WV from back in those days, Robert Byrd would have demanded that the Pentagon be moved to Parkersburg (or some equivalent piece of megapork) but the legislation would pass for reasons above and beyond the personal finances of Senator Byrd. In fact that sort of thing is how WV ended up with a massive radio telescope and the Social Security Administration Center. Joe Manchin illustrates that the only things that matters in today’s politics are the needs of lobbyists and how these needs intersect with a senator’s personal portfolio. If the nation is taken over by white nationalists or destroyed by extreme climate events, it certainly doesn’t matter at all to Joe Manchin (so long as coal mine owners live lives of lavish wealth).
ferrebeekeeper 
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September 24, 2021 at 11:09 AM
mom
And he only represents about 2 million people!
September 28, 2021 at 10:23 PM
Wayne
It sort of feels like he really only represents 1 person…
September 24, 2021 at 3:11 PM
Benjamin Miller
No fan of Manchin, but it has to be acknowledged that he’s a political miracle…without him, and only him (with all his numerous faults), his seat would be a permanent Republican vote in the Senate. Which in the current situation means no Covid bill, no poverty relief, no infrastructure bill, etc etc.
WVa has about a +30(!) GOP lean, which makes Manchin the Democrat holding the most conservative Senate seat in the country by an enormous margin.
September 28, 2021 at 10:53 PM
Wayne
My family is from West Virginia. The state voted for Dukakis in 1988 (when it was the only blue in a sea of red) and it is discouraging (albeit unsurprising) to see it now as a bastion of Trump fanaticism. Although I suppose you are rational to note that we should accept whatever watered-down thing Manchin’s owners tell him to vote for as better than nothing, my primate brain is screaming that we should throw the bloated traitor out of the party and see how he fairs in a Republican primary.
September 29, 2021 at 8:36 AM
Benjamin Miller
Totally understand how you feel. Things were different in 1988…and I imagine that if Dukakis had made clean energy and coal regulation a major part of his platform, he wouldn’t have done so well in the state.