Simple: Elect more liberals

Reporter: "What do you say to people who think you and Senator Sinema are holding this whole thing up?"

Senator Manchin: "I'm not--we only have 50 votes. . .. All they need to do is we have to elect more--I guess for them to get theirs--elect more liberals."

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is a point of frustration and anger for many Democrats. He is standing in the way of a larger bill that would provide more more social services and more support for green energy. Manchin explained himself to reporters:

I've never been a liberal in any way, shape or form. There's no one that's ever thought I was. I've been governor, I've been secretary of state, I've been in the state legislature, I've been a US senator, and I hope voted pretty consistently all my whole life.

I don't fault any of them who believe that they're much more progressive and much more liberal, God bless them. And all they need to do is, we have to elect more liberals.

Manchin frustrates Democrats because he is calling them out, telling them the simple, unwelcome truth. It is a 50-50 senate, and Democrats are doing as well as they are because he got elected in West Virginia by being exactly who he is. Manchin is not the opponent of Democrats. He is the bellweather. He tells Democrats the balance point of American politics. 

Democrats who wish that Biden could be another FDR should be careful what they wish for. The New Deal was possible because the Solid South Democrats openly favored racist policies that maintained segregation and White supremacy.  FDR tolerated it as the price of keeping their support. The Solid South supported White working people. Democrats sometimes forget that.

Democrats also forget that the popular New Deal suite of programs created earned benefits and work programs, not free food. The WPA and CCC put unemployed people to work. Social Security was a benefit based on quarters of taxed earned income. FDR understood that even in the Depression, with a quarter of the labor force out of work, people were skeptical of spending tax money to support idleness. Manchin understands it too:

My top line has not been — my top line has been $1.5 [trillion] because I believe in my heart that what we can do and what the needs we have right now, and what we can afford to do without basically changing our whole society to an entitlement mentality.

Manchin gave Democrats a challenge, put up or shut up. You think you understand where the votes are in America, then prove it. Try selling entitlements:

Take that on the campaign trail next year, and I'm sure that you'll get many more liberal, progressive Democrats with what they say they want.

Manchin thinks they will fail at that. Republicans will call it socialist, fiscal conservatives will think it is too expensive, and rank and file voters will suspect that it is giving money away to the undeserving, the lazy, the improvident, i.e. to people of other races and ethnicities. Reagan's "welfare queen" was Black and drove a Cadillac.

Manchin is a reality fix for Democrats. What works in Berkeley and Portland and Brooklyn, and what motivates the progressive activist base of the party, is not broadly popular across heartland America. Who says? The simple fact that Democrats don't have a working majority now and history suggests Democrats will lose votes in the 2022 election. Progressive Democrats see this as a reason to move boldly now, while they still can. Manchin sees it as the reason they must not. They are already out of touch with America, and this bill makes things worse.

Manchin, frustrating as he is, represents the center of gravity in American politics. If that weren't true, Democrats wouldn't need his vote.