Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has become a maverick of a sort in the Democratic Party. This position is thrown to him by circumstance and one that any Democratic Party Senator could easily play given the fifty-fifty split in the Senate.

However, Manchin is the only one who has decided to play the starring role and has subsequently become the love child of the Republicans and the go-to man for the media on policy positions by the Biden Administration.

Fellow Democrats charge him as the “main roadblock to getting goals accomplished;” however, Manchin has refuted the charge on the premise that “The best politics is good government. I can’t believe that people believe that, if you just do it ‘my way,’ that will give us the momentum to get through the next election.”

Clearly, this is a man who doesn’t recognize what is at stake at the moment but is more focused on the next election.

“We won’t give this system the chance to work. I am not going to be part of blowing up this Senate of ours, or basically this democracy of ours, or the Republic that we have,” said in a press report.

It is a pity Manchin political angelic quality was not on show before now.

His latest shot is that Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan needs to be “more targeted,” a clear signal he is not on board with his party even as a front for bargaining power.

Is it any wonder that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sees Manchin as a ‘savior’, noting that he “almost single-handedly is preserving the Senate as we have always known it, which is a body that requires a supermajority to do most things.”

Notwithstanding McConnell’s infamous line, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

This was a threat followed through on by blocking everything the Obama administration tried to accomplish and save for the rallying and support of the minority community; Obama would have been out of office as planned by McConnell.

Manchin knows that he would be without a platform if it weren’t for the precarious position in which his party has found itself.

Political win at the polls carries consequences, and it so happens that the Democratic Party won the last general election; therefore, the electorate expects them to govern, not the Republicans.

Seeking for consensus, though desirable, should not be the quest of the winning side — but don’t tell that to Joe Manchin.

The truth is until Manchin and people of his ilk recognize that they are sent to Washington to work for the people, and party politics is secondary, all they will be doing is shadowboxing.

Yvad Billings, Readers Bureau, Contributor

Edited by Jesus Chan

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