I'm not glad to see him go in an absolute sense: he's 1000x better than any republican in that seat.
But I am glad to see him go in a relative sense. If we had to lose any one senator, losing him was the best outcome for us, with Sinema right after.
He (and she) frequently undermines our messaging and would slow our governing down for no good reason. He sought out moderation for the sake of moderation, rewarding republicans for their Overton window shifting.
It's easy to miss because all of us that come here follow politics extensively, but for most "normies" they only pick up the surface level stuff. A single senator fucking over our messaging gets through to those people. They won't know the exact details, they'll just know that democrats are not united in their messaging, or that democrats held congress but the minimum wage stayed the same anyway. We know why those worked out the way they do, but most voters will not.
I'd still rather have him than not, but Manchin did come with a real cost to our ability to sell the party to voters because of his insistence on going against the party as often as he did.
My sentiments exactly. Yes he was better than any alternative and I'd rather have him than not, but the way he'd run to the press with every grievance or perceived grievance was so narcissistic and bad for our branding. At least Sinema for all her faults pissed people off largely behind closed doors.
I'm not glad to see him go in an absolute sense: he's 1000x better than any republican in that seat.
But I am glad to see him go in a relative sense. If we had to lose any one senator, losing him was the best outcome for us, with Sinema right after.
He (and she) frequently undermines our messaging and would slow our governing down for no good reason. He sought out moderation for the sake of moderation, rewarding republicans for their Overton window shifting.
It's easy to miss because all of us that come here follow politics extensively, but for most "normies" they only pick up the surface level stuff. A single senator fucking over our messaging gets through to those people. They won't know the exact details, they'll just know that democrats are not united in their messaging, or that democrats held congress but the minimum wage stayed the same anyway. We know why those worked out the way they do, but most voters will not.
I'd still rather have him than not, but Manchin did come with a real cost to our ability to sell the party to voters because of his insistence on going against the party as often as he did.
My sentiments exactly. Yes he was better than any alternative and I'd rather have him than not, but the way he'd run to the press with every grievance or perceived grievance was so narcissistic and bad for our branding. At least Sinema for all her faults pissed people off largely behind closed doors.