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PURELY POLITICAL, By Jim Buckley
COURTESY PHOTOSen. Joe ManchinI hate writing this, because the last thing I want to see is a Democratic Party in the ascendant. However, as I gleefully watch the party decompose, there is one way it could save itself from internment and that would be by nominating Joe Manchin as its 2024 presidential candidate.
The radical Left has a chokehold on the Democratic Party, and its elected officials don’t have the courage to stand up to the bullying, except for one man: West Virginia’s U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.
Though he fully supported President Biden’s spending packages (other than the $1.9-trillion or whatever) “Build Back Better” behemoth), he also, according to factcheck.org, voted with President Trump 60.5% of the time. And, according to the Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, he voted against his own party’s bills 38.5% of the time.
In the case of overturning Roe v. Wade, should that come to pass, Sen. Manchin lined up with all Republicans in voting against the Democrat’s recent plan to federally enshrine abortion, thereby negating any state restrictions. Though the public perception is that Democrats would be more “energized” by the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade than Republicans, my guess is that it would be a 50/50 wash, causing about as much enthusiasm on the pro-abortion side as it would among the anti-abortion crowd. A recent Monmouth poll, for example, found that 44% of respondents believe Congress should allow abortion nationwide, while 43% would let states decide the issue.
Joe Manchin should announce his candidacy for president as a Democrat in early winter 2023. He would, of course, be pilloried by the Far Left. Alec Baldwin has already called Sen. Manchin “a traitorous Democrat” for his vote with Republicans against the misnamed (aren’t they all?) “Women’s Health Protection Act.” No doubt other Far-Left types in Hollywood — the Ilhan Omars and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes — would rail against him, but Sen. Manchin could possibly garner enough votes from the greater middle and saner contingent of the Democratic Party to overcome the Left’s noisy and likely nasty opposition.
COURTESY PHOTODonald TrumpIt would be a long shot, but a Joe Manchin ticket (Tulsi Gabbard as V.P.?) could possibly overtake the 2024 Republican Party nominee, whether it be Mr. Trump, Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis, Mike Pompeo or any one of a number of serious Republican candidates.
As long as the Senate and House are controlled by Republicans, a moderate Democrat such as Mr. Manchin in the White House would be some comfort if a Republican did lose in 2024. Many, including me, would be OK with that situation, though my preference would be a Republican president and a Republican Congress in order to expedite the changes necessary to save the Republic.
WHAT WOULD TRUMP HAVE DONE?
Last week I proffered that no one knows for sure how a President Donald Trump would have handled a series of situations, but guessed that he would likely have handled it better than the current White House tenant. Here’s more thinking on that.
1) Let’s assume Russian President Vladimir Putin would have gone ahead and invaded Ukraine despite the warning from President Trump that there would be “dire consequences” of such an act. I do believe Mr. Trump would have acted more quickly and decisively to help Ukraine resist.
After all, during the Obama presidency, the U.S. refused to give or sell to Ukraine defensive weapons. President Trump OK’d the purchase of defensive weapons by Ukraine soon after taking office.
Plus, that $40-billion package of aid for Ukraine would not have fallen completely on the U.S. President Trump would have required that the other NATO nations pony up their fair share of the costs of defending Ukraine.
2) The $100-plus cost of a barrel of oil would never have happened under a Trump presidency, as the U.S. had already attained energy independence, the putative mission of the Department of Energy. As any war progressed in Ukraine, the U.S. would have ramped up energy production and ensured that Western Europe’s energy needs could be and would be supplied by U.S. companies.
3) COVID-19 restrictions, lockdowns and mask mandates would not have been a factor in the resurgence of the virus. Such procedures would never have been mandated. Instead, a public policy of education and virtuous encouragement would have been instituted.
The press would then have been able to blame a million COVID deaths on Trump, but nothing would have changed. The results would have been the same. Lucky for the Republican Party and for President Trump, President Biden owns the 700,000-plus deaths that have occurred since he became president and that virtually no one in mainstream media ever blames Mr. Biden for.
4) The overturning of Roe v. Wade would be a positive development, and a President Trump would calmly oversee the government’s timely acceptance of the Supreme Court’s decision, whatever it was. We can expect the Biden administration to weaponize the decision if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
5) There would probably have been an “inflationary spiral” regardless of who was president.
Mr. Trump has frequently stated how much he liked “other people’s money,” but my guess is that the overly generous $1.7 trillion pandemic “American Rescue Plan” act drawn up in 2021 that sent money indiscriminately to voters would not have been so generous and that, while there would have been some inflation, it wouldn’t have been nearly as high.
LAUGH OF THE WEEK
This week’s belly laugh was uttered by former Democratic National Committee chairman and failed presidential hopeful Howard Dean, who said on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that Democrats are “the party of hope” and that Republicans were “the party of fear, anger, and pessimism.”
Speaking of Republicans, Mr. Dean opined, “They believe that there is no future for human beings, and they are creating an America, or trying to, where there is no future for the United States of America. I think they are going to lose because of that.”
Democrats the “party of hope?” Republicans the “party of fear, anger, and pessimism?” If Mr. Dean really believes this (and I don’t believe he does), he and his party are more delusional than anyone has seriously suspected up until now.
James Buckley is a longtime Montecito resident. He welcomes questions or comments at jimb@substack.com. Readers are invited to visit jimb.substack.com, where Jim’s Journals are on file. He also invites people to subscribe to Jim’s Journal.
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