Senator Joe Manchin — the bane of progressive Democrats — will not switch parties and become a Republican. The Media, the likes of Claire McCaskill, and some on Daily Kos swear if we are not nice to Manchin and cater to him that Manchin will become a Republican. I have a news flash for all of them. Manchin says he is not going to do that, and I believe him on this score. Why? Because Manchin will NEVER survive a Republican primary challenge in WV. Manchin has voted to impeach Donald Trump not once but TWICE!
Has everyone forgotten that little fact about Joe Manchin’s voting record?
Manchin did the right thing by voting to impeach Trump. And I have to keep belaboring this point: Manchin did it twice! First for the shakedown of Ukraine, then Trump decided to have a little insurrection on Jan 6th.
Given that Republican voters still love Trump and believe his Big Lie about the 2020 Election, how do you think those voters would react to a Democrat who voted to impeach their leader twice suddenly switching to the Republican Party? Badly is the answer. If Trump is running again in 2024 — and who is going to stop him? — you can bet Trump will remind his loyal supporters of who betrayed him. Trump lives for vengeance.
In fact, here is what Trump said about Joe Manchin after the first impeachment vote:
Sen. Joe Manchin defended his vote to convict President Donald Trump on the two articles of impeachment approved by the House after the president attacked him on social media as "weak" and "pathetic."
"Can’t say I mind the fact that the great people of West Virginia are furious at their puppet Democrat Senator, Joe Manchin," Trump tweeted Saturday night without elaborating on how he had determined the people of Manchin's state were upset.
"They will never forget his phony vote on the Impeachment Hoax," Trump's tweet continued.
Do you really think that Trump would forget about a U.S. senator who voted to impeach him? Think that a party switching Joe Manchin would get Trump’s blessing in the WV primary in 2024? Trump will simply encourage some ambitious WV Republican to run against Joe Manchin in a primary. After the 2020 Election, there are even more Republicans in office in WV. Therefore, there is no shortage of eager beavers Republicans wanting to move up the political ladder.
Honestly folks, the competion for political power has now increased in the WV Repbulican Party. Lots of WV Republican office holders and more registered Republican voters too. Meanwhile, the Democratic bench in WV has been decimated.
And in case you need further proof, here is the reaction of some WV GOP office holders to the first impeachment vote:
U.S. Congresswoman Carol Miller said in a news release that she hopes lawmakers can now move on and work together.
This impeachment was nothing more than an attempt to overturn the will of the American people,” Miller said. “It has accomplished nothing beyond wasting taxpayer time and money.”…
West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael was critical of Manchin’s vote today to remove Trump from office.
“I had sincerely hoped that Sen. Manchin would ignore the political pressure of his liberal Washington friends, and reject their constant schemes to remove President Trump from office,” Carmichael said in a news release. “Unfortunately, Sen. Manchin believes President Trump should be removed from office despite the will of West Virginia voters.”
And Joe Manchin was the only one in the WV congressional delegation who voted to impeachment Trump over the Jan 6th insurrection.
And from the current political trajectory, Trump will be running again in 2024, unless some prosecutor somewhere manages to send Trump to prison. I’m not holding my breath on that. In the near term, WV has become Trumpland. And only the most holy and pure in the faith of Trumpism will survive a Republican primary. And Joe Manchin has committed grevious sins against the God Emperor Trump that the faithful will not forgive him for.
If anyone from WV wants to comment on this diary, I’d love to hear from you specifically.