Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) is vowing to vote against certain key leftist agenda items should Democrats gain a tie in the Senate. Manchin says he will vote against court packing, ending the filibuster and other “crazy stuff” proposed by the far left.
The incoming Senate currently stands at 48 Republicans, 46 Democrats, and two Independents who caucus with the Democrats. Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) currently leads his race by more than 95,000 votes, with 98 percent reporting, and Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.) is comfortably ahead in his race with 58 percent reporting. Assuming those two races go to the GOP, control of the Senate will come down to the two senatorial run-off races in Georgia.
Should the current mainstream narrative on who won the presidency hold, with Democrat Joe Biden winning, Democrats could be in control of both the House of Representatives and — with two wins in Georgia — the Senate with Vice-President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.
That’s assuming, of course, that no Democrat will ever break ranks. On certain issues, Manchin claims he will side with the GOP.
“50-50 control means that if one senator does not vote on the Democratic side, there is no tie and there is no bill,” Manchin told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday.
“I commit to tonight and I commit to all of your viewers and everyone else who is watching, I want to allay those fears, I want to rest those fears for you right now because when they talk about, whether it be packing the courts or ending the filibuster, I will not vote to do that,” Manchin said.
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Manchin is considered a moderate Democrat, having voted for both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to be confirmed as Supreme Court justices. Manchin also sided with the GOP on Senator Tim Scott’s police-reform bill. However, he did toe the party line and vote against Amy Coney Barrett for the most recent opening for the court.
“I’m a proud moderate conservative Democrat. Maybe there’s not many of us left but I can tell you what this country wants is moderation,” Manchin said.
Manchin had more strong words for other portions of the Democrats’ legislative wish list, such as the Green New Deal, de-funding the police, and so-called Medicare for All, which Manchin said was probably impossible to pay for.
“It was wrong for this many people to be split, for us not to be able to have a mess that didn’t scare the bejeezuz out of people and when you’re talking about basically the Green New Deal and all this socialism, that’s not who we are as a Democratic Party,” the West Virginian said.
Manchin’s description actually is what the Democrat Party in America has become. The thought leaders in the party are people such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.), Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). The radical ideas espoused by politicians such as these have become mainstream Democrat thought.
Perhaps Manchin seeks a return to the days of the Blue Dogs — centrist Democrats who were willing to break with the party on key issues. In 2008, the coalition boasted 56 members of the House of Representatives who were willing to break with Democrat party leadership. While that coalition still exists, five members who ran in 2020 lost their reelection bids. Without any new members, the new Congress will have only 19 members of that coalition remaining.
Manchin’s promises are nice but, in the end, they’re only promises. Who knows what sort of pressures he’ll be under to side with Democrats on court packing and ending the filibuster?
That’s what makes the Georgia Senate races so crucial. Should Biden and the Democrats succeed in taking the presidency, the only thing standing in the way of their radical agenda will be those two senate seats. To win one of those seats is a must and with “Republicans” such as Mitt Romney in the Senate, it’s better to win both of them.
