In What World?

In what world is Joe Manchin living?  He recently opined, that passing the For The People Voting Rights Act without Republican backing would overly upset volatile Trump supporters. “The only thing I would caution anybody and everybody about is that we had an insurrection on January 6, because of voting, right? And lack of trust in voting?” Manchin told HuffPost then. “We should not, at all, attempt to do anything that would create more distrust and division.” Joe, What about the real fact that the lack of confidence in voting results totally from fake fraud claims. It’s the definition of pandering. It’s indulging a mass delusion.  Most people tell pollsters they think elections are fair. Overall trust in elections has gone up and down over the years, but it’s been much lower among Republicans since Trump’s loss, likely because Trump has falsely claimed the election was stolen. Democratic confidence in election results similarly declined after 2016, but most still said that election had been fair.  In his op-ed, Manchin said there is actually bipartisan support in the Senate for many provisions outlined in the For the People Act. The bill doesn’t have a single GOP co-sponsor, but Manchin claims Republicans actually do support many of its provisions.  “Efforts to expand voting hours and access, improve our election security and increase transparency in campaign finance and advertisement rules should and do have broad, bipartisan support and would quickly address the needs facing Americans today,” Manchin wrote. “Taking bipartisan action on voting reform would go a long way in restoring the American people’s faith in Congress and our ability to deliver results for them.”  Giving wings to a frog would prevent said frog from bumping its ass on the ground as well.  Neither will happen in this world.  Bipartisanship, Republican style, is exemplified by the 2017 tax cuts which were, like most recent Republican legislation, based upon myths and lies.  Republicans are unified around the failure of the Biden Administration.  Republicans realize that the policies they promote appeal to a shrinking population and are searching for any means to offset the lack of appeal to a general population.  Rather than adopt a policy that American wants, needs, and solves major problems Republicans obstruct and then change voting rule so as to be less penalized by their incompetencies.  For Joe Manchin to suggest Republicans are interested in bipartisanship is a myth not unlike trickle down economics.  Bipartisanship on the part of Republicans has not happened since the days of Ronald Reagan and will not happen in the future.  For Joe Manchin to fail to realize that the concept of Republican bipartisanship is but another myth that does not exist in the real world.