As RedState reported this morning, Sen. Joe Manchin officially put the last nail in the coffin of the so-called “For the People Act,” a far-left, federalized takeover of the country’s voting system. Democrats had sought to codify things like universal mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, no voter ID, etc. after many states temporarily adopted such measures during the 2020 election, ostensibly due to the pandemic.
Manchin’s op-ed makes clear he’s not only not going to touch the filibuster, but that he’s an outright no on HR1 itself, saying that he feels such a partisan bill would only further erode the country. He’s certainly right on that front.
Manchin putting this marker in the ground has the left going absolutely insane, which is to be expected. Now, the Civil War is going hot. Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York responded to Manchin by accusing him of codifying Jim Crow.
There are a few things that stick out to me here, starting with the fact that Jones’ comparison is historically idiotic and shows the kind of privilege he and others on the left actually operate under. Nothing about voter ID and regulated early voting periods relate to the Jim Crow era. That was an era of discrimination, segregation, lynchings, and other violence that targeted people and their right to vote specifically due to their race. Voter ID is not racist. Not allowing three months of early voting is not racist. To suggest such is moronic, in regards to the facts on the ground.
It’s also just stupid and offensive. Remember the freak-out that occurred after Marjorie Taylor Greene made an ill-advised comparison of mandatory mask-wearing to the Holocaust? We had a week-long news cycle talking about how awful all Republicans are, for what was, at worst, an insensitive analogy.
Here, we have a Democrat House member comparing Georgia’s several weeks of early voting and ballot deadlines to lynchings and poll taxes. It’s incredibly offensive to those who actually lived through Jim Crow. Nothing we have today is Jim Crow, and that comparison simply shouldn’t be made.
But you won’t see the media attack Jones like they did Greene, because they are completely in the tank for the Democrat Party. Heck, Joe Biden himself has made the Jim Crow comparison without a hint of criticism from anyone outside right-leaning media.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman also lit into Manchin, accusing him of being a stooge for corporate interests (as if major corporations aren’t left-leaning, or something).
The Democrat coalition is unsustainable. The radicals have taken over the leadership, either directly or via proxy, and the further things move left, the more the party splits in two. While they aren’t vocal, there are still a lot of liberals who are more middle of the road politically. Manchin, though he seems like a unicorn, is actually a lot more representative than people think he is.
Democrats are going to tear themselves apart, and I’m gonna be sitting here with my popcorn.