Quite obviously, the reaction by Democrats over recent pronouncements from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) tanking the Build Back Better Act have ranged from disappointment to white-hot fury. His views on filibuster reform have also been a recurring source of frustration for those progressives trying to save democracy in America.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), while keeping a lower profile over the past few weeks, has also taken a substantial share of criticism for her views on BBB and on the filibuster. The criticism has often questioned whether these two Senators are really Dems or Republicans in disguise. In fact, based on Manchin’s recent performance, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-hell) has offered him a position of high honor in his Republican caucus and many in the press and the public have been taking the offer seriously.
Let’s explore a little more deeply whether Manchin and Sinema are indeed a good fit for the Dems or whether they would be more fitting as Rs. The best way to check, as Rachel Maddow often points out, is to watch what they do, not what they say. So I decided to check the voting records of the Senators in question and compare them against the other sitting members of the Senate, just, you know, to see if maybe we could offer to trade a Joe Manchin for a Lisa Murkowski, with maybe some cash and a future draft choice thrown in.
Fortunately, a website called ProgressivePunch.org has done all the legwork.
If we look at the complete voting records of all 50 Dem Senators during the 2021-2022 session and rank them by their progressive votes, we find that Senator Manchin ranks, you guessed it, number 50. Compared to the most progressive Senator, Cory Booker, who scored an impressive 100%, Joe Manchin’s score was 90.32%. So Manchin bucked the progressive agenda less than 10% of the time in 2021. If we restrict our ranking to only those votes on issues that the website calls “crucial,” Manchin still ranks 50th and his score drops to 87.37%.
Senator Sinema ranks 48th in both categories, scoring an impressive 96.18% on all votes and dropping to 93.16% on crucial votes. (My own Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) ranks 49th in both categories.)
Now let’s compare the scores for all the US Senators, including the 50 Republicans. Are there any Rs whose votes might cause us to believe they could replace Manchin or Sinema in Dem hearts? The closest Republican to Manchin is Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who ranked 51st and voted with the progressives 58.77% of the time, dropping to 28.80% on crucial votes.
So let’s take a broader look at these numbers. Senator Manchin, who is taking extreme heat for his illiberal views, actually supported progressive legislation more than 90% of the time in the current Senate. The most progressive Republican, Susan Collins, voted against progressive legislation more than 40% of the time. The range of progressive scores among Democrats ranged from 90-100%, while the Republicans ranged from zero to 59%. Considering only crucial votes, the Dems ranked between 87 and 100%, while Rs ranged between zero and 29%. If Manchin were to join Mitch’s team, he would stand out as an extreme liberal and would undoubtedly have McConnell and the other Rs tearing out their hair more often than not.
Perhaps votes in the current Congress are not a good measure of a person’s overall progressive leanings, given the extreme nature of politics in 2021? Perhaps a lifetime voting record would provide a more complete characterization of a Senator’s record than a single atypical year?
OK, ranking each of the 50 Dem Senators by their lifetime votes on progressive legislation, Joe Manchin again ranks 50th with a score of 60.13% on crucial votes and 66.40% overall. Kyrsten Sinema ranks 49th with scores of 69.90% and 70.58%, respectively on crucial and overall votes. Yes, these 2 consistently rank at the bottom of the Dem caucus based on their votes for the progressive agenda. But let’s compare them to the Republicans. Susan Collins remains the most progressive Republican over her career in the Senate, registering scores of 36.65% and 24.77% on all votes and crucial votes, respectively. Other Republicans? Don’t even ask.
Just for yuks, consider Ted Cruz. His votes this year put him at the bottom of the dunghill that is Republican politics, achieving a pathetic score of 0.24% on all progressive legislation and ZERO on crucial votes.
So let’s be fair. Where do Manchin and Sinema rank in the pantheon of liberalism that comprises the set of all Dems in the US Senate? At the bottom, unquestionably. Do we let them off the hook because they vote with progressives most of the time? Absolutely not. Pressuring them to move left is our only path forward. Our democracy is at stake.
But would they be better off caucusing as Republicans?
I think even asking the question is insulting.