Manchin

According to the AP, “U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said that he has been thinking ‘seriously’ about leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent.” What else is new? I’m guessing that this is a ploy to help him with re-election in the uber-conservative state of West Virginia. I’m also guessing he’ll still caucus with Democrats. But there is a larger point to make with his impending defection: The Democratic Party doesn’t have a majority in the Senate, and they keep “losing” members. If Manchin follows through and still caucuses with Democrats, then that would make a Democratic “majority” supported by four independent members — King, Sanders, Sinema, and Manchin. RepubliKKKlans don’t have this problem, only Democrats do — and it is a problem that they seem to constantly ignore. It drives me absolutely f***ing insane that Democrats keep strutting around claiming they have a majority in the Senate when, in fact, they do not. And they haven’t since the first half of Obama’s first term. Instead of striving for a real majority in the Senate — 51 actual Democrats — they are complacent with a minority status that functions as a majority. Whatever! This is why Democrats don’t win as much as they should. They never seek to dominate, only to have enough to do the bare minimum. Welcome to stupid America!