Manchin’s Op-Ed might as well be titled, ‘Why I’ll vote to preserve Jim Crow.’
-Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) by Noah Well, it was bound to happen. West Virginia wasn't satisfied with just having typical Republican racists represent them, they chose a Democratic one too. Always remember, this is the state that not so long ago had another Democratic $enator named Robert Byrd and he'd started out as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Byrd, in fact, was the last Democrat in the $enate who had been known to have been a KKK member. Sure, he did recant but do the thoughts that lead you to joining the KKK in the first place ever really leave? So, now we have Joe Manchin from that same "great state of West Virginia" and he's so proud to be a racist that he has come right out and gone one step further than not wanting to just do away with the filibuster so that a new voting rights bill can be passed. Manchin says that, filibuster or no filibuster, he won't vote for the bill regardless. Perhaps Manchin feels that coming out as a racist will help him with his West Virginia constituents. In any event, he's blown the door to his personal racism closet right off its hinges and cut it up for firewood, or, to make crosses to burn. On Sunday, in an Op-Ed in his home state's Charleston Gazette-Mail entitled "Why I'm Voting Against The For The People Act," Manchin in fact says he says he will not vote for the bill unless Republicans will vote for it. In other words, Joe Manchin will not vote for the new voting rights bill unless the current party of the KKK, the party that regards voter suppression as its #1 priority, approves of it. Despite any meaningless and distracting fluffy words to the contrary, that is the obvious bottom line of what Manchin's Op-Ed has told America; and a voting rights bill that the KKK approves of would not be much of a voting rights bill now, would it? Manchin may claim to not be a KKK member but, really, how would we know? We have only his reprehensible racist actions and words to go by. Manchin is making it clear that he is all about preserving Jim Crow obstacles of trying to vote while black or brown. For Manchin and his racist Republican allies, it's "Jim Crow today. Jim Crow tomorrow! And Jim Crow Forever!" I bet he was singing the words "Strange fruit from a strange tree" while he wrote his missive. We don't need no stinking voter rights indeed. A couple of days ago, I asked if Joe Manchin had any decency at long last. Thanks for answering, Joe. At least we now know officially where you stand.