The classic criminal legal defense. SODDI Some Other Dude Did It
The wonderful Huffington Post reporter Amanda Terkel penned an article this weekend about how a single 74 year old white man kept millions of American mothers and fathers from bonding with their newborns in the weeks after the joyous birth. It was a scything indictment on how one out of touch old white dude could screw the majority of Americans on an issue that has broad support across all political divides and ethnic backgrounds.
Look, let’s be clear here. Throughout this entire reconciliation process, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema have been flagrant attention whores. All of the House Democrats, as well as 48 of the 50 Democratic US Senators have been on board from day one with Biden’s transformative Build Back Better agenda. It has been Manchin and Sinema who have obstructed every step of the way, forcing concessions from the 96% majority of the Democratic party to serve their corporate overlords and open the donation valve. But in doing so, they have both become public and media lightening rods, and therein lies the risk.
Here’s the McGuffin. On Ayman on MSNBC, related that she had been in contact with women’s rights and family rights activists, and that they were absolutely furious with the paid family leave being left off of the bill. But they’re not furious at the Democrats as a whole, they are specifically furious at Manchin for forcing the caucus to jettison the program. And they are swearing dire consequences in 2024, when Manchin is up for reelection.
Is this an off ramp for Democratic incumbents in 2022? 96% of Democrats are already on record as supporting Biden’s aggressive Build Back Better agenda. It was two selfish Democratic Senators that forces popular items to be dropped from the bill. But in doing so, and in playing to the cameras, they put all of the white hot heat on themselves. The activists that Terkel spoke to were laser focused on Manchin, not the party writ large. And activists promoting lower prescription drug costs, especially through Medicare being able to negotiate lower dry prices would be well served to focus on Sinema, deep in the pocket of Big Pharma.
Political talking heads, as well as other nattering nabobs of cynicism, have been predicting Democratic doom in 2022, due to their failure to pass the massive agenda that Biden proposed. But if what Terkel is reporting is accurate, that may well not be the case. Manchin and Sinema put themselves forward as the two main forces of obstruction, and anti progressive reform, and the activists seem to have noticed. Democratic incumbents don’t need to throw Manchin and Sinema under the bus, just point to their own repeated votes to advance the Biden agenda, they were stymied by Manchin and Sinema. And let the voters make up their own minds as to who is at fault. SODDIÂ
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Mark your calendar for Nov. 15 at 2pm when Katy Tur returns to her spot on MSNBC. When she came back from her first maternity leave she gave an in-depth and heartfelt accounting of her lengthy time off. A lot of people jumped all over her as a whiny, privileged white woman of means who got tons of time off.
And COMPLETELY missed the meat of what she said. She pointed out how lucky she was to have had the kind of money she (and her husband) had, the family and friends she had and an employer with very generous family leave policy. She literally pointed out that she had everything she needed to figure things out. How to be a new mom (and her husband got to figure out how to be a new dad), deal with her post partum issues and emerge mentally healthy and strong and bond with her newborn. She pointed out how wrong it was that she was part of a very small group of working women that had the opportunities and benefits she had. She pointed out how in damned near every other developed country there is paid family leave and not just a couple of weeks but into the months, and that like her for those who could afford it be extended at reduced/no pay for more months without it impacting their job or career. She pointedly talked about how WRONG it is that in this, the richest country on earth with the highest rates of worker productivity most women get a few days off, if that much.
I’ve got a feeling she’s already working on what she’ll have to say about Manchin (and others) when she returns to the air on Nov. 15. I suspect it’s going to be a brutal takedown and I for one am looking forward to it. Tur is someone who knows how privileged she’s been and has shown a willingness to use that privilege to try and do some good. And if she decides to really go nuclear on Manchin she will tailor a portion of what she says to folks in WV, and pose a question – to Democrats and Independents, we expect this from Republicans but is Manchin the ONLY person you can come up with?
It will be hugely difficult for Republicans to maintain their current wave of interference with Democrat’s push for Biden’s plan, but the uneven attacks by the two owned Democrats puts a damper on everything positive, when the very nature of what has to be fixed with the grid and the total crash coming from any continued use of coal and oil …
The cost will be astronomical, going beyond anything ever before, this stymy dual will cost us so much more in the long run … unhappy folks do not make for higher production and quality results at the factory …
Sinema is over. Arizonans don’t want another R.
Manchin and Sinema sabotaged the future of America and possibly human civilization. If McAuliffe loses in Virginia on Tuesday it will be in great part because of them too.
Ursula be careful. Not all of us old, white dudes are on the same side. It’s his CHARACTER & the lure of riches & power that are the reason. Not his sex. Not his age. Time to focus, not continue unjust descriptions that discriminate. I spend my free time providing free childcare for a black 5 year old, with a single mom & a dead father. Notice Sinema wasn’t described as that young white girl. Just saying.
Sorry Ursula. This was Joe’s article.
Probably because Sinema is NOT a “young white girl.” She’s a 45-year old white woman. So a better description would be “middle-aged white woman.”
Then again, Manchin has seemed to be the main focus of all the news media with Sinema being more like his shadow. That could be due more to how long Manchin’s been in the Senate (since November 2010 to Sinema’s January 2019 entry) than any other specific reason for ignoring Sinema. Sinema simply hasn’t turned into the same kind of attention-seeking gadfly-slash-media whore that certain short-term House and Senate GOP members have become.
Understand all that but misses the point that we need to talk about their character not age, gender, looks, size of penis, eye color, shoe size, etc. It’s all their lack of CHARACTER & the violation of their oaths, & their sellout of the common good for selfish aims. Hey, to me 45 is young, since I’m 23 years beyond that. I wouldn’t go back though. As Dylan sang, ” I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”