Would the senator rather switch AND fight?
Question of the day for the Werkes advisory (and unpaid) peanut gallery: should Joe Manchin switch parties? Come over to the dark side? Join the Republican party?
Wouldn’t be the first. The last U.S. Senator to do so was Arlen Specter in 2009; he turned Democrat. Here in Wisconsin, Young Bob La Follette left the Republican party for the new Progressive party in 1934, then returned in 1946 upon the demise of the Progressives, only to be defeated in the Republican primary by Joe McCarthy. Winston Churchill went from Conservative to Liberal and back to Conservative intime to take on Hitler.
From what we read, Mitch McConnell says he’s had a standing invite to Manchin for some time now. The beating Manchin is taking from the likes of Bernie Sanders and Jen Psaki over his repudiation of Biden’s Build Back Better might be the push he needed.
“I’m from West Virginia. I’m not where they’re from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive,” he told a local radio station. (Marco Rubio and Lindsay Graham, take notes!)
Voted to convict
Career-wise, it might be the smart move. In that most Republican of states, Manchin barely won re-election in 2018 with 49.6% of the vote, squeaking past his Republican opponent by three-tenths of a percentage point. The state’s other senator, Shelly Moore Capito, won with 70% of the vote as a Republican. Trump carried the state in both his elections with 68% of the vote.
We have a hunch Manchin pays no attention to the Werkes. Our question is directed at local Republicans — particularly to Republicans in Trump Only (RITOs) who confuse principles with personage.
For one thing, Joe is not all that conservative. He’s tied with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as the 54th most conservative out of the 100 — just behind Susan Collins of Maine, according to how the wonderful govtrack.us website tracks the last Congress. (The only Democrat more conservative is Kyrsten Sinema!) Many of our Republican … friends (for they ARE our friends) are willing to overlook that. Their real litmus test is fealty to Trump’s Big Lie about a stolen election.
Manchin voted to convict Donald Trump during his two impeachment trials — both times! — the first in February 2020 over the Ukraine phone call. He did so again a year later as one of 57 Senators (67 required to convict) who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection. So did Republicans Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, and the RITOs favorite pariah (drum roll), Mitt Romney of Utah (who voted to convict both times).
To my … friends in the purge-happy wing of the party, would you issue Joe a membership card? Mitch McConnell is eager to take him in but Trump is trying to take Mitch out. Not sufficiently loyal.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Politics is a game of addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
23 responses to “Would Donald Trump accept Joe Manchin?”
NO. He’s a Dem but understands basic economics where the rest of his party doesn’t.
The GOP should continue to grow it’s ranks from plenty of patriotic Americans who have had enough of this crap.
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Psst, Davedawg, don’t look now, but I think your TDS is showing.
Of course, you know that 60% of Republicans, even those wascuwwy wepubwiccan winos,
(H/T: Fudd), would vote for President Trump again.
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But that wasn’t the question, was it Dog/Man. The question was would RITOs accept Joe Manchin into the Republican party (not the Trump party, the Republican party) or do his two votes to convict Trump disqualify him. You’re up.
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Thanks Dave.
If Manchin were to leave the Democrat Party, I doubt he’d become a Republican. I think it’s more likely he’d become an Independent, … at least he’d identify as one, even if he, (like Angus King and Bernie Sanders), caucused with the Dems. If he did quit the Dems he’d be warmly welcomed with open hearts and minds into our Big Tent.
Trump has a yuuuge ego, but his cult of personality pales in comparison to the historic, but butt-nekkid, Emperor “Let Them Eat Hope” Urkel, the First’s Obamabot Zombies. Trump’s supporters are free-thinking and open-minded. Some are apolitical.
Trump brought them into the fold.
Even Trump’s closest allies aren’t so-called Republican-in-Trump-only. Jeez Louise, Dave, even Don Jr. and Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, asked him to try to cool things down on Jan. 6th. Trump listened and issued a couple more moderating statements.
Here’s some honest questions for you:
Who exactly are the RITOS? Can you name one?
For whom are you going to vote when Trump runs again?
Why do you have a litmus/purity test for your fellow Republicans?
Don’t you know that the “perfect” is the enemy of the good?
Don’t you like good Christmas music?
Wasn’t it Reagan who waxed wise with his 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak evil of a fellow Republican.” and spoke the truth, “The person who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and an ally, … not my 20% enemy.”
.
Back to you, Dave.
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Still no answer? Are you stumped? I asked YOU if YOU (pretend you are Mitch McConnell) would accept Joe Manchin into the Republican party. Sure, I’ll answer your interrogatories:
1. “Who exactly are the RITOS? Can you name one?” — What is your name?
2. “For whom are you going to vote when Trump runs again?” — Someone else.
3. “Why do you have a litmus/purity test for your fellow Republicans?” — My only litmus test is conservatism, honesty, and integrity. That why I would welcome Joe Manchin. It’s why you won’t answer my question.
4. “Don’t you know that the “perfect” is the enemy of the good?” — I do but it’s why you won’t answer my question about Joe Manchin; it’s why you hate Mitt Romney.
5. “Don’t you like good Christmas music?” — I post the content around here; I take down content that does not pertain directly to the subject at hand.
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Dear Dave,
You’d better get in the Chistmas spirit ASAP, or you might pull your hubris.
Don’t make me send three Christmas spirits to haunt you and yours.
Thanks for answering my questions. I thought I’d answered yours.
I’m sorry you missed it. “If he did quit the Dems he’d be warmly welcomed with open hearts and minds into our Big Tent.” That’s a definitive yes.
You know why Santa Claus is so jolly?
He knows where ll the naughty girls are.
Nudging you toward the holiday (aka: holy day) Peace on Earth, good will toward men.
Have an inclusive Happy HamaRamaKwansMas, my friend.
GDHM
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Absolutely not and why should he, the guy is a liberal. He may not have voted for this piece tax and spending plan yet but he will like he has voted for all things liberal in his career. He is already back in negotiations with Xiden. His tough guy stance is all flim flam garbage because he knows he is feeling the heat from home state. He has delayed the passage but almost everything about this reconciliation bill smells to high heaven.
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Dear David,
Your bottom line: Politics is a game of addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division.
So true. But once again your avoiding the elephant in the room.
You are trying to organize a death cult. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.
Could this be because Trump voters were older? No, the trend was robust even after controlling for age.
But please, remember to use your mouthwash every day.
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At his last rally trump said he got his booster shot. That means he got the first two also. He was BOOOOED by the crowd. I guess all this horse medicine BS was just that. ALL BS.
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Look at the company you keep Squire… every RINO in either house and they must be honored because they are loved by the Washington Party. Yet you crow about your principles. Pick one of the two contradictions.
Trump, so far has everything he could want from WV. A major majority of voters and a courageous budget hawk who has objected to the national credit card for years. Unlike the Washington Party and the Squire’s Party but I repeat myself.
Manchin and Trump could get a lot of things done together with ease. And any other time you’d applaud those accomplishments.
But not now because … principles.
Also, don’t you think your side bar about Eric Jr’s dismay over the panty raid of January 6 puts the lie that his father wanted it?
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AND as an apparent effect of TDS, you subtract 70,000,000 Trump voters.
Well less one.
That’d be you, Squire.
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I was one of the 70 million who voted for Trump BEFORE January 6, BEFORE he defeated two Republican senators in Georgia, BEFORE his attempts to purge solid Republicans like Mitch McConnell, BEFORE his continued lies about a stolen election that he repeats to this very day. Glenn Youngkin may have been the first to distance himself from the dead weight of Trump but won’t be the last. That, from the sound of it, would be you. BTW: Trump will not run again. I’m going to put money on that with a Vegas bookie.
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So when were you wrong?
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“Panty raid”??? I’m old enough to remember those from my college days. We didn’t bust up the women’s dorms to get it.
You ask, “Don’t you think your side bar about Eric Jr’s dismay over the panty raid of January 6 puts the lie that his father wanted it? ”
No, it proves it. Because Trump didn’t react until hours later. Even then, he praised the rioters. Remember what he told an outraged Kevin McCarthy, who called in the middle of the insurrection: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Does that sound like Trump did NOT want the insurrection?
BTW: Whose panties did the insurrectionists win? Nancy Pelosi’s?
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By the way, what panty raiders were shot dead?
You are doing a Charlottesville lie when you assert “No, it proves it.”
Remember the old switcheroo on ‘good people on both sides’ lie?
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Yes, Mark. I remember that Charlottesville lie and it WAS a lie! Tell me what the 719 arrested think they were doing and why it’s a lie?
“Robert Palmer, 54, told the judge that he had come to recognize that Trump and his allies had lied to their supporters by “spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was ‘our duty’ to stand up to tyranny.”
“Little did I realize that they were the tyrannical ones desperate to hold on to power at any cost,” Mr. Palmer wrote, “even by creating the chaos they knew would happen with such rhetoric.”
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Right, this guy threw a fire extinguisher and is going to prison and he, like yourself, believes its Trumps fault. Unlike the many thousands of Trump supporters outside who did not get the message. But you and Palmer did.
Bombshells! Walls closing in.
Rinse, repeat.
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Gee, Mark. A good soldier wouldn’t give up his general, would he? The many thousands of Trump supporters outside — what were THEY trying to do? Persuade Mike Pence to overturn the election? By building a gallows?
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They were doing the same thing you were doing at the school board meeting when Freedom Inc decided there would be no meeting.
And wow, Trump Svengali’ed folks into bringing their buffalo suits and carpentering up a gallows. That is some serious foresight.
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If Trump did not Svengali (verb, transitive) the insurrectionists, why did they erect a gallows for Mike Pence and disrupt the constitutionally ordained transition of power at the Capitol on January 6. Did they do so despite his obvious encouragement? (I keep asking; you keep evading.)
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When did he tell someone to make a gallows, throw a fire extinguisher or wear a buffalo suit?
And the title of this blog completely misses the real question which is hidden by the premise of political party. He would work with anyone who would help Make America Great Again.
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Mark+ “When did he tell someone to make a gallows, throw a fire extinguisher or wear a buffalo suit?”
Head Groundskeeper: Then why did they?
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Mitch shouldn’t just “invite” Manchin to join the GOP; he should offer him every incentive under the sun. It’s not just one more vote for the party, it means flipping the Senate to the GOP and stopping Biden & Co. dead in their tracks (a redundancy when applied to the president, but still).
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