HP for retiring when she did. What's the point of amassing a conservative Democrat voting record when you're just going to head for the hills when the going gets tough?
Tell that to Joe Manchin too.
It wouldn't have mattered whether Manchin ran this year in the slightest, lmao. Democrats would be slaughtered with or without Manchin...only difference would be a 20-point Republican landslide rather than a 40-point landslide.
I agree. My point is that he undermined so much of Biden's agenda t seemingly come across as "moderate" only for that not to matter since he won't be facing voters again. If his last term was spent being more progressive, I'd be more forgiving.
I mean, I feel like Manchin is genuinely just a centrist/moderate D? Sure, it was also politically expedient given WV, and I'm sure that in some instances state politics compelled him to vote against his personal belief (like maybe the Kavanaugh confirmation vote since that was right in the middle of a tough campaign), but I do think that on the whole Manchin was pretty clearly a conservadem. He's never lied about who he was. I'd say be grateful for Manchin because he was still the most liberal candidate who could be elected from there (barring a sleeper stealth liberal who kept his real views hidden for decades only to self-activate after 2018).
If it was a blue state Dem then yes I'd agree with you, but given the composite ideology of those that voted for Manchin, he votes pretty reasonably. Be glad he's still a moderate Dem who's liberal 50% of the time and not a hard-right R who's liberal 0% of the time (as so many Blue Dogs, in WV and elsewhere, have become).
Poll
