Democrats are in control of both the executive and legislative branches of government — albeit barely. There’s a slim Democratic majority in the House and an evenly split Senate, and we should be grateful every day for the courage of two Senate Democrats: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Joe Biden hasn’t been shy about how the fate of his agenda has been in their hands. Last year, Biden desperately tried to convince them to get behind his $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan. He’d previously said it wasn’t hyperbole to say that the fate of his bill would determine the House and Senate majorities and his presidency. Democrat strategist Douglas Schoen agreed with that sentiment, so Biden was likely right.
Nevertheless, despite the president having individual meetings with Manchin and Sinema to get them on board, Build Back Better ultimately died.
Without the two conscientious senators, the Democratic Party would have rammed through the most radical agenda of our lifetime, including their “voting rights” legislation, which would have completely overhauled and federalized our elections, making it easier for them to cheat and stay in power.
Manchin and Sinema may have saved our republic. To echo Joe Biden for a moment, that isn’t hyperbole.
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Their bravery in standing up to the radical leaders of their party cannot be overstated. They aren’t the only red-state Democrats in the Senate, but they’re the only ones with the cajones not to tow the party line 100% of the time.
In fact, according to a new book about the Biden administration by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, Sinema says there are five or six other moderate Democrats in the Senate who have been “hiding behind my skirt” as she pushed back on the radical left.
Well, that’s blunt — and I don’t doubt it’s correct. It’s long been speculated that Sinema and Manchin have given cover to other moderate Democrats so they can vote with the radical leadership of the party, and it seems Sinema knows first-hand that this is indeed the case.
According to the Martin and Burns book, Sinema also discouraged Biden from visiting Arizona after he signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. In addition, she was the “first-ever lawmaker to argue with White House aides” about wearing a mask in the White House after she was vaccinated.
I won’t pretend there’s a lot I agree with Sinema on, but she’s stood up to the far left enough times when it counted. I wish more Democrats were like her and Manchin, because until others speak out they’ll always be considered just a couple of odd ducks in the party to be mocked and not taken seriously. If more moderate Democrats stood hand-in-hand with them, it might actually force the Democratic Party to scale back their radical ambitions and do what’s right for the nation. But because it’s only Sinema and Manchin, many on the left say they should switch parties or a more leftist candidate should primary them when they seek reelection. The left figures that, since it’s just two senators, they must be the problem. If the five or six other moderate Democrats Sinema spoke of stood up, more in the party would realize that Sinema and Manchin aren’t the problem.
