West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (photo, left), 77, who didn’t run for re-election in 2024 and would’ve lost if he did, torched the Democratic Party in a CNN interview on Sunday, December 22, 2024 (read story here).
Manchin, who spent his career as a Democrat, re-registered as an independent in early 2024. He claims Democrats have become “toxic,” and in particular “criticized the party’s progressive members [as] out of touch with Americans,” claiming they’re telling people how to live their lives.
This is sort of true, but also silly, because you can say the exact same things about the Republican Party. And Manchin himself is out of touch in his own way.
Manchin, a multimillionaire who made his fortune as a coal broker, either doesn’t understand or won’t accept that younger Americans are genuinely worried about climate change and support transitioning to clean energy.
He also underplays public angst over a Supreme Court that’s wildly out of touch, and is more distrusted than at any time since before the Civil War.
The Democrats have their progressive wing, the Republicans have their far-right wing. Both parties are coalitions of voters with a spread of views. Manchin has been in politics too long to not understand that.
He may not like the Democratic Party’s shift leftward, but the Republican Party has lurched to the far right. He isn’t wrong to argue that most Americans are closer to the political center than either of the parties, but that’s not one-sided only on the Democratic side.
It seems obvious what he’s trying to do here is push the Democrats back toward the center, which isn’t a bad thing, although that may be trying to paddle a canoe up a waterfall. But where his remarks will gall many Democrats is (1) the absence of criticism of Republicans; (2) the Democrats aren’t the most radicalized of the parties, the Republicans are, and (3) the Democrats aren’t the most toxic problem in American politics, the Republicans are.
On the basic broad issue of governance, Democrats are competent at governing, Republicans are not. As for values, Democrats defend democracy, while Republicans undermine it. Democrats are genuinely concerned for the welfare and wellbeing of ordinary Americans; Republicans are not. Democrats are better for the economy, workers, consumers, and retirees. They’re serious about public health, while Republicans push wacky conspiracy theories. They want everyone to have health care, while Republicans restrict access. They respect science and protect the environment, while Republicans trash both.
So there’s a lot Manchin could say about Republicans, and to his credit he’s not one, but instead he goes off against Democrats because he doesn’t like some of their policy ideas. It’s his silence about the Republican alternatives that won’t sit well with the voters and party that supported him throughout his public career. Above all, he comes across as an old geezer trying to lecture young people who face living in a world that has changed, and he isn’t changing with it.