Just sitting here thinking about what would happen if Republicans had the House, the presidency, & 50 senators, & one senator -- literally one guy -- was standing in the way of their entire agenda. I invite you to imagine the full-spectrum, 360° hurricane of shit ...
... that would descend on said senator. The RW billionaires that would call & bully him, buy ads against him, & hire private investigators to dig into his private life. The biz CEOs & lobbying firms that would pledge never to do business with him. The media ...
... that would coordinate -- across radio, cable news, local news, & social media -- to ravage him. The RW candidates that would immediately arise to challenge him in his next primary. And above all, the grassroots fury (also coordinated by billionaires) that would haunt him ...
... everywhere he goes. Shouting mobs outside his house, outside his office, outside everywhere he goes. The death threats that would flood his office.
All these efforts would be coordinated, sustained, & synergistic. The senator in question wold basically have to be willing...
All these efforts would be coordinated, sustained, & synergistic. The senator in question wold basically have to be willing...
... to commit professional suicide (& risk real physical harm to himself & his family) to stand against his party.
Over on the D side, Manchin risks ... nothing. Faces ... no consequences. Has his ass kissed every day by party leaders. Rather than fury & contempt ...
Over on the D side, Manchin risks ... nothing. Faces ... no consequences. Has his ass kissed every day by party leaders. Rather than fury & contempt ...
... Dems (even Dem pundits & amateur Twitter pundits) immediately rolled over & showed him their bellies. They fear him. They discuss him like some mysterious monster in the mountains: all you can do is make sacrifices to him & hope it sates his appetite.
It's not just that the left, broadly speaking, lacks the mechanisms to punish heretics the way the right does. It's that Dems seem to lack the instinct. Instead they go straight to making savvy arguments to one another about how it couldn't be otherwise, oh well, what can you do.
That's what brings status in left journalist/pundit world: the most savvy, world-weary explanation for why Dems can't have what they want, why they can't win, why they need to scale back their aspirations & suppress their values & learn to love the shit sandwich they're eating.
[meditating to stay calm] No, I did not forget about McCain's vote on ACA repeal. I could list about 5,000 disanalogies to the Manchin situation, but they seem like they ought to be obvious so maybe I'll just take a twitter break.
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