Joe Manchin was on the tube this weekend talking about his position in the debate on the COVID relief bill. Joe is a Democrat who has managed to keep getting elected in a seriously red state. He has done it by lying to his constituents about the fact that the coal business is over. The coal business has never been good for labor but for a century or so it was the only source of employment in a state that has the least educated work force imaginable. But even when coal was king it was the most dangerous, most unhealthy occupation man has ever developed. The bullshit propagated by the Trump administration that coal will come back is a lie. It cannot. It is a direct threat to the planet and to the health of those who mine it and those who burn it.
The current reality is that coal no longer employs a significant number of workers to allow it to be a factor in West Virginia’s labor force. The problem is, nothing has replaced it as a source of employment and that is what Manchin should be spending his time on. This once beautiful state with a welcoming climate must be able to find some manufacturing process at which it can be successful.
Manchin tied up the Senate last week attempting to foil legislation that had been demanded by 76% of the American people. Will there be fat in this bill? Sure! Will there be waste? Of course! It will be administered by state and federal agencies that are still staffed by people, so as there is in every spending bill there will be waste, but nothing compared to the waste we live with every year in our military spending.
This is the most helpful and needed piece of legislation of this pandemic era. Manchin loves to babble about the importance of bi-partisan legislation. It would be lovely to have a sense of agreement or to at least be listening to each other but the evidence is sky-high that such cooperation, especially among the GOP legislators is almost non-existent. We are looking at a bill that has the backing of 76% of the American public. Many of those people are Republicans. Despite this favorable reaction from citizens of their own party not one single GOP senator voted for the bill, basically telling their constituents to fuck off. If that’s bi-partisanship, Manchin can keep it.
*****
With all the talk about who is bi-partisan and who isn’t, what has gotten lost is the history. All we have to do is look back at to the last year to get a real view as to who is bi-partisan and who is not. During the Trump administration when congress passed COVID relief bills they were all heavily weighted toward GOP goals but they still got a lot of Democratic backing because the Democrats understood that some of the provisions of these bills would help people who were in distress and that was government’s job. Now with Biden in the White House and a Democratic House and Senate, the bills will tend to be weighted to the left and instead of passing with a few GOP votes they are passing with no GOP votes. Because the GOP politicians are more interested in party power than in helping the people who voted for them. That is the real bi-partisanship as it exists in the world today. The GOP has no interest in viewing the merits or failures of any legislation that is proposed by the Democrats. Their only interest is to stop it and brand it “socialist” without actually having any idea of what socialist means.
Right now we have a Republican Party that cares nothing about what is good or bad for their constituents or the country. It cares only about its own lack of power and how to overcome that. It mistakenly thinks that the solution to this problem is to stop all government activity by voting “no” on all Democratic sponsored bills until their strategy of suppressing votes all over the country can come to fruition and they can return to congressional power.
*****
The Coronavirus Relief Bill is a reality and just so the 76% of the country that thinks it’s a good thing understands; this is a completely Joe Biden/Democratic accomplishment. The Republicans did nothing, nada, zero, to pass this bill. There was not one single GOP vote for it, despite the fact that 76% of the nation backs it. Even a majority of Republican voters back it. What is wrong with the Republican Party?
The GOP is willing to fight their asses off to keep American citizens from voting, but they won’t do the smallest thing to get those votes the way they should, by working for the people who will cast them. Watching Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio rip the Republicans a new one for their complete dismissal of the needs of their constituents, was like watching a ball go through the net for the winning points as the buzzer goes off. But no matter how exciting, no matter how fulfilling one is forced to ask the inevitable question of those Ryan was raging at. “What the hell are you trying to achieve?” There was no functional goal for anyone to refuse to move the bill along. It’s just simply good for the bulk of the American people. Why are you voting against it? The tax bill you passed under Trump, the only thing you got up off your butts and accomplished, hurt all these people. Now you have a chance to help then and you pass? Not just pass, you vote against it! You allow a dumb shit like Ron Johnson to delay the whole thing for no reason by demanding that the entire bill be read to the Senate! The GOP knew it was going to pass so the only explanation for a God awful stupid demand like that would be that the Republicans in the Senate are too stupid to read and needed it read to them.
*****
I was watching a News program this afternoon on which the reporters were discussing the passing of the COVID Relief bill and the announcement of the administration’s purchase of more vaccine from the manufacturers so that it will have a surplus available in case of unanticipated problems. This, coupled with the announcement last week that we have an ample supply to cover all vaccinations by the end of May, more than two months early, had everyone in the discussion happy.
When do you ever remember any announcement by the Trump administration that they were able to truthfully announce, that something, anything, had been done well and on time? It’s such a pleasure to see a government that works, that functions, that isn’t stumbling over its own feet and then lying about it.
I don’t know if many noticed but it was just old fashioned nice to have Biden announce the accomplishment without having to brag about it being the greatest move in the history of mankind and how he was a God for being able to pull it off.
*****
I watched today as Elizabeth Warren told the heartbreaking story of her brother’s death from COVID-19. It is a story that, just in this country, has been repeated over a half a million times in the last year. It s the legacy of Donald Trump’s callous disregard of his duty and a vivid illustration of the incompetence of the bumbling ex-President and his entire non-functional administration.
Now that we finally have a competent man in the presidency and a group of hand picked, functional administrators working for the American people we finally have a legitimate shot at getting the business of the nation done. Unless that is, the Republican Party is successful in their attempt to trash the Constitution, destroy democracy and return to a position of power that they have already proven they are unwilling to use for the good of the nation.
The fact is, the far-reaching inability of the Right to function on any level may be all that’s necessary to keep them from succeeding in their grasp for power. I mean after four excruciatingly long years they have yet to fumble their way to any kind of platform that might illuminate any goal except the accumulation of power. They have attacked the Democrats attempts to legislate programs of Medicare for all, fair immigration, voting rights, anything in fact that will help the American people, all while they have accomplished nothing and in fact have no platforms to deal with these enormous problems in any way.
They attacked Obamacare for eight years of Barak’s administration and four years of Trump’s but in that dozen-year period they produced not one sentence of legislation to replace it. Yeah, we should vote Republican; we should also cut our own throats.