I can’t say I’ve ever heard of the Group “Murray Head”, but I do have a vague recollection of hearing their song back “in the day”: Say It Ain’t So, Joe.
Shoeless Joe
“Say it ain’t so, Joe.” It’s a phrase attributed to a sports reporter, talking to baseball hero “Shoeless” Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox after he admitted to a grand jury that he cheated in the 1919 World Series. If you don’t remember that piece of sports history, you’ll remember “Shoeless Joe” as a central figure in the movie Field of Dreams. It was the ultimate letdown; a hero admitting to fixing “America’s Game” for money.
I’m tempted to keep researching the phrase, to give you more trivial tidbits about it. But I’m simply putting off the inevitable. This essay isn’t about trivia: it’s about Joe Manchin on Fox News Sunday this weekend. He said the words seemingly fatal to President Biden’s Build-Back-Better Plan: “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation…”
Promises Broken
After months of negotiations and good faith promises by Manchin and Biden to the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party, it seems that it’s over. Manchin has pulled the “Lucy and the football” on Progressive Democrats, and they would argue, on the Nation. He got what he wanted, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The West Virginia turnpike (among many other things) will get plenty of cash for repairs. But the folks lifted by the Child Tax Credits, the seniors waiting for hearing and vision support, the parents paying hundreds of dollars for their kids insulin, the desperate need for climate repairs – all will have to wait. The gentleman from West Virginia has made it up his mind.
Or has he? Does “I cannot vote for this piece of legislation…” mean that Build Back Better is dead? Or is this just one more negotiating ploy in the long saga of a conservative Democrat from West Virginia finding himself in a progressive Democratic world. It seems that Biden and Manchin are “only” a half a trillion dollars apart – that’s after being multiple trillions away in the beginning. So why now, why torpedo the process at this moment?
Sharing Blame
Before we parse this issue, there are two points to remember. Democrats are not the only ones in the United States Senate. The reason why Joe Manchin is at the center of all of this, is that the Republican Party has as a singular body refused to participate in governing. They are not only the Party of “NO”, they are the Party that just a couple of years ago, were perfectly willing to spend trillions in tax cuts that largely went to giant corporations and the 1% of wealthy Americans. So they don’t get a “pass”.
And second, Democrats are only in this position because they aren’t electing enough Senators. The list is lengthy: North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, Montana and Iowa all were vulnerable Republican seats in 2020, and the Democrats didn’t get one of them. That empowered Manchin (and Sinema, and every other Democratic Senator) with the kind of veto power we are seeing today.
Almost Heaven
Joe Manchin is a man of West Virginia. The Reverend Barber can march down the streets of the capital-city Charleston with the poor people of the state to highlight those who Manchin is hurting. Sadly, that’s not what influences the Senator. The Build Back Better plan contains over half a trillion dollars in climate change legislation, and climate change legislation translates in “West Virginian” to anti-coal. Joe Manchin is not only personally invested in the coal industry, but West Virginians as a whole, rich and poor are as well.
He can’t go home against coal. Ask Hillary Clinton: while the logic is that coal should be the first fossil fuel to go when it comes to climate change, coal is embedded so deeply in the mountains and culture of West Virginia that academic logic goes out the window. When Hillary “spoke the truth” to West Virginians about coal in 2016, she managed to make the traditionally Democratic state the “Reddest” state in the union. As the only Democrat statewide office holder, Joe Manchin knows what political suicide is, and he’s not doing it.
The Deal
So maybe Build Back Better isn’t dead – but maybe the climate change portion is. Perhaps Senator Manchin is quietly offering an alternative. Take the climate change money, use it to fund the other portions of Build Back Better for ten years instead of two or three. That way the Progressives get a win, and Manchin can still go back to his hometown in Farmington, West Virginia, a hero.
It’s not what I want, nor is it what’s good for the country. But it may be the only thing that the Senator from West Virginia can live with. And until his veto doesn’t matter, we have to dance to his tune. Or we can sing the sad song: “Say it Ain’t So Joe”.
