Letter to the editor: Manchin playing Russian roulette with our democracy – Charleston Gazette-Mail

Senator Joe Manchin is playing Russian Roulette with our democracy. His fealty to the myth of bi-partisanship and the filibuster make hollow his words of support for voting rights.

The current Republican party is anything but bi-partisan, wanting power for its own sake, not for the good of the country. Robert Byrd manipulated the filibuster when it threatened to paralyze the Senate; he would have had a voting rights carve-out by now. If Manchin doesnt allow for modifying the filibuster, chances are good that he will lose in 2024 should he choose to run again.

Many conservative Democrats who voted for him in 2018 are likely to vote straight Republican in 2024. Increasingly active progressive Democrats would work and vote for Manchin only if he went to bat for voting rights. More importantly, without the passage of the For the People Act the voter suppression and vote nullification laws that many states have enacted will stand.

The grand experiment that is our country will have failed; autocracy will replace democracy a tragic outcome that could have been averted but for the inexplicable behavior of Senator Joe Manchin.

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Letter to the editor: Manchin playing Russian roulette with our democracy - Charleston Gazette-Mail