You Make a Difference! Our mission and operations are funded entirely by Patriots like you! Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign now.

June 7, 2021

Manchin Sticks a Fork in Dems’ HR 1 Power Grab

The West Virginia senator declares that he will vote against both HR 1 and eliminating the filibuster.

The Democrat senator from the deep-red state of West Virginia showed that he’s more concerned about being beholden to his constituents than to advancing his party’s power plays. Senator Joe Manchin penned an op-ed in West Virginia’s Gazette-Mail over the weekend, sending a clear response to Joe Biden’s not-so-veiled rebuke over his refusal to go along with Senate Democrat desires to eliminate the filibuster. “Partisan policy making won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it,” Manchin wrote. Therefore, he declared, “I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.”

Last week, Biden asserted, “I hear all the folks on TV saying, ‘Why doesn’t Biden get [HR 1] done?’ Well because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.” Once again, facts don’t appear to matter to Biden when he’s spinning a yarn, as the record shows that both Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) — the other apparent reference — have voted with Biden 100% of the time thus far.

Manchin contends that the biggest problem with the Democrats’ “For the People Act” is its partisan nature, observing that not one Republican has voted in favor of it. “Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen,” he argues. The reality is that, for Democrats, the partisanship is the point. Democrats’ bill is so mendacious, tilted in their favor, and flagrantly unconstitutional that no Republican could ever support anything remotely like it. Manchin’s tone it down message is far from sufficient.

Meanwhile, like Sinema in her defense of the Senate filibuster last week, Manchin noted that the Founding Fathers wisely constructed the Senate as a check against absolute power, intending “specific checks and balances to force compromise that serves to preserve our fragile democracy.” At one time this perspective would have been widely held by the majority of lawmakers in both parties, but in this modern era of hyper-partisanship the majority of Democrats have heeded the siren call of power over principle.

In any case, Manchin’s declaration makes it somewhat official — the Democrats’ prospect of eliminating the filibuster in order to get HR 1/S 1 onto the desk of Biden is all over but the shouting.

Speaking of shouting, though, Manchin received an earful from former ESPN anchor and Leftmedia pundit Jemele Hill, who ridiculously asserted via social media: “Record number of black voters show up to save this democracy, only for white supremacy to be upheld by a cowardly, power-hungry white dude. Sen. Joe Manchin is a clown.” The only clown here appears to be Hill.

Manchin may or may not be truly bound by principles. He does have a “D” after his name, after all. But he is at least keenly aware of political reality in a state Donald Trump won by 39 points.

HR 1 may be in a ditch, again, but Democrats did manage to pull off a public relations coup. As seasoned journalist Brit Hume observed: “The Democrats have succeeded in one way, and that is they’ve got everybody referring to [HR 1] as a ‘voting rights’ bill. Who is against voting rights, nobody.” They succeeded in making it appear Republicans were against “voting rights.”

(Updated)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.