To our fellow patriots in the great state of West Virginia: Please remind your senior senator to be a man of his word. And remind him that his constituents went for Donald Trump by 39 points. Otherwise, our republic is toast. Joe Manchin, you see, is the only thing that can keep us from being legislatively steamrolled by the Democrats.

Six days after the November 3 election, and long before last week’s Senate-flipping disaster in Georgia, Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, told Fox News’s Bret Baier that even if the Democrats took both of Georgia’s Senate seats in the January 5 special election and thereby achieved a 50-50 tie in the upper chamber — a tie breakable by soon-to-be Vice President Kamala Harris — we wouldn’t have to worry about the wing nuts in his party enacting their far-left agenda.

Welp, they did take the Senate. And despite Manchin’s assurances, we’re still worried.

You’ve heard the Democrats’ wish list: doing away with the filibuster and its time-honored protection of minority rights; packing the Supreme Court and lesser courts; adopting the economically and fiscally ruinous Green New Deal; granting amnesty and voting rights to illegal immigrants; and granting statehood to Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, thereby granting four more automatic Senate seats to the Democrats.

We have Joe Manchin’s word, though. His word.

“I commit to you tonight,” he said on November 9, “and I commit to all of your viewers and everyone else that’s watching … I will not be the 50th Democrat voting to end that filibuster or to basically stack the court, and in all the other things you’re hearing about, Bret, also, defund the police. I don’t know of any of the Democrats in the caucus that are for defunding the police. We’re not for that whatsoever. And when they talk about basically, Medicare for All, we can’t even pay for Medicare for some. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

See it for yourself:

Here we are, then, in the sorry position of having to count on a single Democrat politician to save us from ruin. And we share this news because while Manchin once seemed unequivocal in his commitment to protecting the Senate and its rules and traditions, he appeared to get a bit wobbly this weekend in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. When asked by Tapper if he supported statehood for Washington, DC, Manchin replied, “I don’t know enough about that yet. I want to see the pros and cons. So, I’m waiting to see all the facts. I’m open up to see everything.” Puerto Rico? Ditto.

It could be Manchin now realizes that in a 50-50 Senate, he’s the most powerful man in Congress. How so? With VP-elect Kamala Harris poised to cast the deciding vote in all 50-50 ties, Manchin’s vote or non-vote will determine whether Harris gets to cast hers. Needless to say, both Republicans and Democrats are going to make sure Manchin feels the love.

Give credit to Bret Baier, a journalist’s journalist in an age of revolting leftist hacks, for pressing Manchin and nailing him down. “Let me just clarify here, Senator,” said Baier. “You are saying definitively tonight that even if Democrats take control, and Chuck Schumer becomes the Senate majority leader, that, if they try to break the filibuster, say the filibuster is over, you will definitively vote against that?”

“Absolutely. I will vote against that,” Manchin replied. “I have been very clear about that.”

Remember your word, Senator Manchin. And remember the will of your Mountain State constituents: Donald Trump by 39 points.