Joe Manchin is a Republican. That’s all there is to it. Is he as conservative and crazy right wing as most of the other actual Republicans like Ted Cruz? No. But he is a right-winger, end of story. This is where the problem of blind partisan loyalty begins. Simply having the little (D) next your name is ultimately meaningless. It’s why people attack Bernie Sanders for not being a “real” Democrat when he’s by far one of the most if not the most progressive member in the senate, while championing people like Joe Manchin who is a Democrat, and a conservative right-winger.
According to GovTrack’s ideology score, both Republicans; Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins are actually more “progressive” than Joe Manchin. According to National Journal, Joe Manchin has a 55% conservative voting record, and he’s voted with Trump 54% of the time since Trump took office. So Joe is not a progressive, he’s not a liberal, and to borrow a popular phrase, “he’s not even a Democrat!” And yet time and time again we are told that he’s the best we can get. We’re told that West Virginia is simply too red and will never go for liberal policy ideas. However, Bernie Sanders won the West Virginia primary by 15 points. In a recent poll, people in West Virginia opposed the Republican healthcare plan by double digits and when asked what system they would prefer, single-payer healthcare tied with pre-2010-system among West Virginians. So in fact, it is possible to run on a progressive platform and win in West Virginia. You don’t need to settle for rightwing Democrats just because they’re marginally better than Republicans or because they’re not Republicans.
Which brings us to today. An article from The Hill reports that, “West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Democrat, will announce he is flipping to the GOP at a rally with President Trump on Thursday.” The Hill goes on to write, “Justice’s party switch is a slap in the face to the Democratic Governors Association, which spent more than $1 million to try to get Justice elected in 2016.” So here we are again, faced with this idea that ‘Democrats have to run and support conservative candidates in states like West Virginia because otherwise the Republicans will win.’ Well congratulations.
After all that, Justice is a Republican anyway. This isn’t surprising and as Politico pointed out last year, Democrats tacked to the right with candidates like Jim Justice who, “support for gun rights, fiscal conservatism, homespun rural values.” Anyone who actually checked out Justice’s record is not surprised by this at all. He’s always been a Republican, he’s just doing this as a formality.
So now, after months and months of hearing about how we have to support conservative, rightwing candidates in states like West Virginia, because otherwise the Republicans will win, the “Democrat” who ended up winning, became a Republican after all. What a great strategy that was. Run the most conservative Democrat you can find to beat the Republican, and then be shocked when the rightwing conservative Democrat you ran turns out to also be a Republican.
––M
The Max Blog 