From Joe Manchin to Rebecca Cooke, Jasmeet Bains, Angie Craig: The Dems’ Endless Pipeline Of Leaders

When Democrats Campaign Like Republicans, They Become Them

Yesterday we took a look at why putting blue dogs and other Democraps into positions of leadership are a danger to the Democratic Party. Rebecca Cook in Wisconsin’s third district was the example; she’s one of many DCCC-approved candidates. At the same time that was being posted, John Breshahan and Andrew Desiderio were reporting on Dead Center, Joe Manchin’s just-released book: Manchin’s Revenge Tour— Against Dems.

The corrupt and self-serving conservative Manchin (WV), who repeatedly sabotaged the Democratic agenda, ended his time in the Senate last year by switching— along with Kyrsten Sinema— from Democrat to independent. Manchin was all over TV news (and podcasts) promoting the book— and his toxic ideas, pretending to be the victim of the party he spent years undermining. “The 78-year-old Manchin, who briefly flirted with a presidential run last year,” wrote Bresnahan and Desiderio, “repeatedly bashes former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Manchin even declared that he wanted Republicans to win the Senate majority in 2024 due to their support for maintaining the filibuster, saying it was ‘the only hope for preserving the Senate as an institution.’... Manchin does slam Trump, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans, but his most biting criticisms— by far— are saved for his former party’s leaders:

I don’t say this lightly, but under the leadership of President Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid, and later President Biden and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrats have systematically tried to weaken the very guardrails that have protected our democracy for generations— all in the name of advancing their agenda.

You probably recall that “Manchin was a perennial thorn in the side of Democratic leaders throughout his 14 years in the Senate. He stifled the party’s agenda on multiple fronts, especially during the Biden administration when Democrats had a 50-50 Senate majority… Manchin spends a considerable amount of time criticizing the Democratic Party for its ideological shift during the last 10 to 15 years. The party was ‘once a big tent that welcomed diverse perspectives’ but “has increasingly shifted toward ideological purity tests,’ he writes. ‘When the party pushes hard on woke ideology, DEI mandates, and other social agendas, it creates unnecessary divisions, alienates everyday citizens, and moves us further away from the commonsense middle ground where most Americans actually live their lives,’ Manchin said.”

The book reveals that “At one point, Manchin suggests he should have switched parties when Trump was elected in 2016. Manchin went on to say that his home state of West Virginia turned against Democrats due in part to the demonization of the coal industry, adding that Democrats lost their way not just on policy but ‘in spirit, culture, and trust. What I failed to recognize at the time is that there were enough reasons to change my political affiliation to Republican right then and there,’ Manchin wrote.”

That’s Joe Manchin in a nutshell: playing the elder statesman while openly rooting for Republican power, railing against “woke ideology” and “DEI mandates” while cashing checks from the fossil fuel industry. He now openly admits he considered switching parties back in 2016—vsomething obvious to anyone who watched him torpedo Biden’s agenda, gut Build Back Better and hold climate policy hostage on behalf of Big Coal. The larger problem is that Manchin isn’t an aberration; he’s a warning. He’s the perfect case study in what happens when the Democratic Party elevates corporate-aligned “centrists” at the expense of its base. Every Blue Dog the DCCC recruits is another potential Manchin— another future defector who will block progress, trash the party’s leadership, and eventually jump ship to “independent” status while doing Republicans’ dirty work.

If you want to know where Rebecca Cook’s brand of “bipartisanship” leads, look at Manchin’s career. Look at Sinema’s. Look at the parade of “Democrats” who ran as moderates, won with corporate money, and then turned on the very voters who put them in office. The Blue Dogs call it pragmatism. In practice, it’s sabotage: a pipeline from corporate boardrooms to the Democratic caucus, funneling votes and energy away from real reform and toward protecting the donor class. Democrats can’t afford to keep repeating this mistake. Manchin’s book is being sold as a tale of “revenge.” In reality, it’s a confession— and a roadmap for how corporate Democrats wreck the party from within.

And as long as we’re on the subject, yesterday, Holly Otterbein reported that inside the Democratic base, “socialist brand is on the rise.” DATA for Progress “is out with a poll finding that more than half of likely Democratic voters prefer socialist-aligned figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani to establishment politicians like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jefrries and Nancy Pelosi… Fifty-three percent of Democratic voters said they preferred politicians described as similar to Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, while 33 percent favored those similar to Schumer, Jeffries and Pelosi. Fourteen percent didn’t choose… In the poll, democratic socialists were defined as believing ‘that the government should take a more active role to improve Americans’ lives. They generally support higher taxes on corporations and high-income earners, support regulations that protect workers and consumers, and want more public ownership of key industries like housing, health care and utilities.’ The survey described capitalists as believing ‘that the private sector is best equipped to make improvements to Americans’ lives. They generally support lower taxes, oppose government regulations of businesses, and want the private sector to own key industries like housing, health care and utilities.’ After hearing each description, 74 percent of likely Democratic voters said democratic socialism comes closest to their viewpoint, while 16 percent said the same of capitalism. A plurality of independent voters and a majority of Republicans said they preferred capitalism.”