West Virginias Democrat Senator Joe Manchin Showing Signs of Weakening On Ending the Filibuster

Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (WV) who has always claimed to be a moderate but usually votes with the radical left appears to have started to change his beliefs on the filibuster by speaking out of both sides of his mouth in comments he made on two news programs Sunday morning.

Folks, this is no joke.  If the Democrats do away with the filibuster, which is their real intention, you just have to trust me on that, then our republic will go away.  I’m not being hyperbolic.  The filibuster is the only tool that the minority party can use under a lockstep majority hell-bent on bringing radical changes to our society through bad legislation.

The way Democrats throughout history have gotten what they want is through a tactic known as “incrementalism,” where they know if they propose what they really want upfront, and it’s really unpopular with the American people, instead, they introduce smaller doses of information that will plant the seed of what’s to come so that over time, incrementally, they will get people used to the idea of what they really want.  Over time, when they finally propose what they wanted all along the people have already been numbed to the idea.  This is how they got smoking banned on all flights. What the liberals wanted from the very beginning was smoking banned on all flights, but they knew at the time when smoking was allowed on flights if they came out with the ban right away the American people would never accept it.  So what they did was they introduced a two-hour flight only ban where only flights that were two or fewer hours long would no longer allow smoking on the plane.    Then once people got used to it, they lowered it to one-hour flights and then 30-minute flights, and after 30 years of incrementalism, we now have all flights banned smoking.

The filibuster is used by allowing one or more senators to speak for as long as they want when recognized.   The goal is to delay a vote long enough that it has to be tabled in order for the Senate to keep its schedule.  Technically, a filibuster can go on forever.  The filibuster has been part of our system of government since day one.  To stop a filibuster there has to be 60 senators or two-thirds, who vote to overrule a filibuster.

The filibuster is designed to put the brakes on the majority party from rubber-stamping any legislation through they want.  It makes the Senate take a deep breath to restore some sanity to the chamber.  Unfortunately, some politicians have used the filibuster to obstruct any bills brought before the Senate just to be a pain in the keister.  Today, just the mere threat of a filibuster usually brings the other side down a peg and they start to listen to the other side.  As of the 2020 election, however, the current majority held by the Democrats have no interest whatsoever in negotiating with the minority party, the Republicans, and so they wish to remove the filibuster so that they can ram through any destructive bills they want.

Mind you, about 99% of bills that are brought up should be filibustered on the grounds that they are unconstitutional given that the federal government is not Constitutionally authorized to give itself any power it seeks.  If the federal government wishes to usurp a specific power from the states then it must go for an Amendment to the Constitution to ask the states for permission to take that power away from the states.  But I digress.  Remember, according to the 10th Amendment, any powers not listed in the Constitution for the federal government belong to the states.  That still is the case even though Congress a long time ago disregarded that most important rule.

Manchin had repeatedly said he would not vote to end the filibuster no matter what kind of pressure he got from the radical Left, the Woke Supremacy.  However, during interviews on Sunday news programs, Manchin repeated over and over that he isn’t open to get rid of the filibuster, but he’s all for changing it.  Any changes that his party would accept would have the same result as ending it, so once again Manchin lied to the people.

Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday asked the senator from West Virginia if he would consider “reforming the filibuster” if “Republicans just won’t go along with anything.”  Manchin came back with something so dishonorable I hope the people of West Virginia are paying attention.

“The filibuster should be painful,” Manchin said. “It really should be painful. And we’ve made it more comfortable over the years, not intentionally, it just evolved into that. Maybe it has to be more painful. Maybe you have to stand there. There’s things we can talk about.”

“You would consider making it harder to invoke the filibuster so that you just don’t automatically have 60 votes that you need for any legislation?” Wallace pressed.

“I’d make it harder to get rid of the filibuster,” Manchin claimed. “I’m supporting the filibuster. I’m going to continue to support the filibuster. I think it defines who we are as a Senate. I’ll make it harder to get rid of it, but it should be painful if you want to use it. You should make sure the place works to where, okay, I want to work with you, how can we do this, how do we move forward?”

What a prattling load of gobbledygook.  When push comes to baseball bats Manchin will vote however Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tells him to vote.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo took to social media to explain exactly what’s really going on.

“Key from Manchin. Filibuster reformers have been saying consistently that change will only come if it can be packaged as ‘saving’ the filibuster by ‘reforming’ it. And as you can see here that’s exactly where Manchin goes.”

Key from Manchin. Filibuster reformers have been saying consistently that change will only come if it can be packaged as "saving" the filibuster by "reforming" it. And as you can see here that's exactly where Manchin goes. pic.twitter.com/HbVUZKkQwe

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 7, 2021

Manchin also appeared on NBC’s “Meet The [De]Press[ed],” where Chuck Todd, a man always in the running with CNN’s Brian Stelter for Dumbest Cable News Host, asked the senator if he will support getting rid of the filibuster to pass something like the outrageous HR 1 bill.

“Now, if you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk, I’m willing to look at any way we can,” Manchin said. “But I am not willing to take away the involvement of the minority. I’ve been in the minority. I’ve been in the majority. And I can tell you, the respect I have on both sides when I’ve been there should be, ‘I’ve got something to say, listen to me,’ and I want that to happen.”

Ryan Grim, a leftist editor at The Intercept and contributor to the F-Bomb throwing Young Turks, celebrated Manchin’s remarks on “Meet The [De]Press[ed].”

“Huge development,” Grim said. “Manchin can support reforms of the filibuster — make them talk, etc — while removing the 60-vote threshold for a final vote, and still say that he did not end the filibuster. Hard to overstate how big this is.”

Huge development. Manchin can support reforms of the filibuster — make them talk, etc — while removing the 60-vote threshold for a final vote, and still say that he did not end the filibuster. Hard to overstate how big this is: https://t.co/thFPzyqfkV

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 7, 2021

I didn’t hear Manchin say he was willing to remove the 60 vote threshold, so I have to believe he was speculating that when Manchin said he wanted to make using the filibuster painful by making them talk.  The thing is, the filibuster rule hasn’t been used nearly as much as the threat of a filibuster, and so a senator publicly announces he/she will invoke a filibuster on a bill the other party usually works to avoid that, thus the filibuster-toting gunslinger never has to actually speak.  Manchin may have actually said that, but I didn’t hear it.