The Democrat civil war continues to get hotter, and more shots were fired this morning on the Sunday morning shows. Sen. Joe Manchin, confronted with the harsh, conspiratorial words of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, went right back at the socialist congresswoman. That back and forth has come about over the Democrat’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, which Manchin has announced he will not support as it stands.
We are witnessing the collapse of a completely unsustainable coalition.
On one hand, you have Manchin playing the role of the milquetoast moderate, trying to inject some semblance of sanity into his party. On the other hand, you have AOC literally accusing him of killing people. So yeah, things don’t seem to be going all that well. There is just no sign that some meeting of the minds is going to occur between these two wings.
Manchin has already said that he’ll only support between $1-1.5 trillion in regards to reconciliation. AOC and her cohorts, from Bernie Sanders to Rashida Tlaib, have countered by saying that $3.5 trillion is the floor and that there will be no compromise. Add on the fact that several House Democrats, desperate to not lose their seats in 2022, are siding with Manchin, and you have an incredibly large impasse.
It gets worse for the far-left, though. While it may seem like Manchin is on his own in the Senate, he’s providing cover for at least four other Democrats, all of whom do not want their names attached to another budget-busting, inflation-pushing bill prior to the next election. So while AOC throws barbs, there’s no doubt plenty of dealing going on behind the scenes that she’s not even privy to.
So, what happens next? I’m not sure anything happens next. The clock is ticking, and it looks more and more likely that Democrats will simply get nothing of they want, because their left flank can’t accept that they don’t really have a minority. The margin in the House is razor-thin, while the Senate is 50/50. You can not foment a socialist revolution, as AOC wants to do, with those kinds of numbers. She’d do much better to join the rest of us in reality and get negotiating.
Republicans have to be sitting back and loving this. I’m certainly here for it. Let the left eat themselves. Since Biden’s election, they’ve been acting as if they have a massive mandate — when they don’t even have a small one. As for Manchin, he’s welcome to take a look at the state he represents and switch parties. It’s probably the only way he remains in office long-term. I mean, does he really want to keep getting punked like this by a bunch of radicals from his own party? Maybe he does.