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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA broken America should build a monument to Joe Manchin's massive ego
Will Bunch
The self-centered, greedy West Virginia senator is a poster child for everything wrong with U.S. politics. So what is the Joe Manchin workaround?
more...https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/joe-manchin-power-greed-ego-20210916.html
The self-centered, greedy West Virginia senator is a poster child for everything wrong with U.S. politics. So what is the Joe Manchin workaround?
As the summer of 2021 comes to an ignominious end this week...
No ideological label explains what Manchin has been doing this summer. Hes not even a political centrist. Hes a self-centrist measuring his worth less on how much bacon he brings back to almost-heaven West Virginia and more on his number of hits on MSNBCs Morning Joe. In recent days, the take-down in neighboring Virginia of the post-Confederacy statue of Robert E. Lee was a reminder of a nations ever-changing iconography. If America ever wants to memorialize the 2020s, we should build a monument to Manchins massive ego.
James Downie recently took down Manchins politics of the self in the Washington Post, writing that he described his concerns about West Virginias economy as I cant lose one job. I dont have one to spare, as though his Senate office is the states employment center. But Manchin isnt really unique just an extreme example of the political careerism thats made far too many in Washington savvier about catering to their own needs than those of the voters. This West Virginian embodies most of the deadly sins of modern politics, including:
Greed. Manchin boasts that hes put all of his considerable business holdings into a blind trust in order to not affect his politics, but the senator is not too blind to see that zealously pro-business, anti-tax, and most important anti-environment policies are boosting his multimillion-dollar portfolio. The Intercept reported earlier this month that since entering the Senate Manchin has personally grossed more than $4.5 million from coal companies that he founded in the 1980s and are run by his son even as he holds the deciding vote on Bidens plan to wean America off fossil fuels.
Sloth. Still, Manchin knows he cant keep millionaire taxes low all by himself, so he works closely with a network of pro-business lobbyists. The senator is trying to deny the tape-recorded comments of an ExxonMobil lobbyist who claimed he speaks regularly with Manchins office. But he did lash out at the far left in a recent phone call with billionaire donors, and his passionate embrace of austerity is surely pleasing to the right-wing Koch network, which has been currying favor with the senator, or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose political action committee recently gave to both Manchin and his political soullessness-mate, Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Pride. In whats probably just a coincidence (right?), Manchins kids have also done very well during their dads political career. That includes his daughter Heather Bresch the former CEO of the pharmaceutical firm Mylan, which had to pay the U.S. Justice Department $465 million for overcharging Medicaid for anti-allergy EpiPens, a controversy that Manchin never weighed in on. When Manchin was West Virginia governor, a reporter covering Breschs promotion at Mylan learned she didnt have the M.B.A. degree listed on her resumé, but somehow West Virginia University officials came up with not just an explanation to suddenly hand her a sheepskin but grades for unfinished courses were pulled out of thin air. Ultimately, the university president, provost, and business school dean resigned, but nothing bad happened to Bresch or to Manchin. That kind of outcome happens a lot.
more...https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/joe-manchin-power-greed-ego-20210916.html
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A broken America should build a monument to Joe Manchin's massive ego (Original Post)
progressoid
Sep 2021
OP
That has been my suspicion. He is another narcissist playing the spoiler to get attention.
Thomas Hurt
Sep 2021
#1
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)1. That has been my suspicion. He is another narcissist playing the spoiler to get attention.
modrepub
(3,469 posts)2. No Need
There are plenty of slag piles in WV and Appalachia that could be dedicated to him (and other's like him). I'd pick one that's on fire and leaching yellow AMD just for Joe.
48656c6c6f20
(7,638 posts)3. Hmm.
The Manchin police are coming. Be warned.
NewHendoLib
(59,940 posts)4. they may all be at the Sinema