This may have been written about before, but some West Virginian activists have started an organization “West Virginia Can’t Wait” and a website called “Replace Joe Manchin.” This organization got a write up in The Nation back in August. I will be honest and state that this is probably a quixotic effort. However, some people on the ground in WV are giving it a go. And if no one tries to defeat Joe Manchin in a Democratic primary, we guarantee Manchin a free ride to continue to fuck over Biden’s agenda and the Democratic Party.
No, none of this is will change Manchin’s mind or behavior. In fact, Manchin is the one who has told locals in WV to vote him out of office if they don’t like him.
In 2017, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin dared a group of local activists to mount a primary challenge against him. “What you ought to do is vote me out,” he told the activists, who were asking him to hold a public town hall for his constituents. “Vote me out! I’m not changing. Find somebody else who can beat me and vote me out.”
I highlighted that part. They asked him to have public town halls, and Manchin’s response was a hearty “Fuck you!”
And Manchin feels invunerable to political pressure because he has a political machine in WV. And it is a political machine that serves only Manchin and his donors.
Manchin’s power has only grown since his confrontation with the activists. He wields a pivotal seat in the evenly divided Senate, dominating policy debates in Washington. And activists fear that fawning press attention and waves of outside money threaten to further entrench his political machine.
Katey Lauer, cochair of West Virginia Can’t Wait, told The Nation that they can’t go through “traditional party channels” to take on Manchin or influence his policy decisions, because he’s “only accountable to his donors.” The way to challenge him, she said, is through bottom-up organizing year-round, and by stepping up to meet communities’ needs when the government fails them.
“The only hope to persuade a West Virginia politician is to fight like hell to replace them,” Lauer said. “Manchin’s network of corporate lawyers, financiers, coal and gas executives, lobbyists, and party bosses will not be defeated in one election, or in one race. This is a guy who has weekly check-in calls with Exxon. It took a generation for his machine to rise to power. It may take a generation for us to replace it. The threat we build must be fearless, homegrown, and permanent. We have to start at the root. And we have to start now.”
Now, this is not even David and Goliath. David had a sling with rocks. I don’t think West Virginians Can’t Wait have a sling.
So why bring this up Merlin? Aren’t you a pessimist when it comes to Appalachia? You live in a Kentucky and belly ache about how bad the political situation is. Why should any resources be wasted on defeating Joe Manchin?
I’ll be honest with you folks. I am losing my job as of tomorrow. My elderly Mom has dementia, and I have to see if I can find someone to help out. I have been working from home, but to get another job, I will not have that option of working from home. So I am trying to see if Medicare will help cover the costs of a home health care worker to see to my Mom during the days IF I manage to land another job.
So I have a vested interest in Biden’s BBB agenda. And I have a burning anger toward the likes of Joe Manchin. It’s bad enough I have two hateful Republican senators who want me and my Mom to drop dead. But I have to pray that Biden will work some miracle and get a corrupt fat cat from WV to throw some crumbs my way.
I see evil go virtually unchallenged in Kentucky. The Kentucky Democratic Party has failed this state, and it is why Moscow Mitch and Rand Paul are in power. Think about that. If the Kentucky Democratic Party wasn’t dead from the neck up, maybe those two evil men wouldn’t be in the Senate. And think of what two more Democratic Senators could mean to Biden’s agenda.
Except for the Ditch Mitch organization, I see nothing being done in Kentucky to change this situation. And Ditch Mitch didn’t get the job done, but they TRIED. But you have to start somewhere to enact change.
So some folks in WV want to bring about some political changes to their state. And while I cannot give them money now, I will in the future. If only to give myself some hope.
NOTE: I didn’t have this included in my earlier diary entry, BUT I BELIEVE WE NEED TO WIN IN 2022 AND HAVE MORE REAL DEMOCRATS IN THE U.S. SENATE. I am seeing in the comments that we need to focus on 2022 in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and I am all for that. This is just a long term project I think we need to consider about Joe Manchin. If we manage to pick up some Senate seats in 2022, Manchin and Sinema lose their strangle hold on power. But Manchin and Sinema need to go. I have hopes that AZ Democrats will find a primary challenger to defeat Sinema.