Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Siddika's avatar

As of October 1, 2021, the population of the United States was 333,421,330.

Joe Manchin, is attempting to dismantle President Biden’s proposal to spend $3.5 trillion for things like education, housing and child care that actually HELP ordinary Americans. He is the Senator from the state of West Virginia which has only 1.8 million residents. Kyrsten Sinema, who also opposes the plan, is from Arizona with a total population of 7.3 million.

Together, these two represent only 2.7 percent of Americans, and yet they are going to stop legislation that would change the lives of countless millions of men, woman and children in our country for the better.

On Thursday Manchin sneered that if liberals want to pass more bills, they should “elect more liberals.”

Here’s an idea: Have two Democrats —one in West Virginia and one in Arizona— each launch a campaign for the United States Senate next week to replace Manchin and Sinema when their terms expire in 2025. They can start the race now!

Let the candidates tell the people of their states why they are running: so ordinary folk can have some of the same benefits their counterparts in Europe

have enjoyed for decades.

These are some of the things your Senators don’t think you should have, the candidates can declare:

Universal pre-kindergarten education for 3- and 4-year-olds,

affordable child care for working families,

tuition-free community college,

an expansion of Pell Grants for higher eduction so students

will not be burdened by massive student debt.

Hundreds of billions to build affordable housing and establish

community land trusts

$107 billion to address the climate crisis, including forest fires,

the effects of droughts and the need to reduce carbon emissions

$198 billion to develop clean energy and create millions of jobs

in the process

If candidates like this for the U.S. Senate were to emerge right now when Manchin and Sinema are trying to sink the Biden agenda, it would be a news sensation. Every TV network, newspaper and internet venue would run the story. The two would become instant household names. Campaign funds would pour in from all over the country.

And the two Senate challengers have only to repeat over and over

and over what President wants to do for the people of America with his two infrastructure plans that will cost a total of $5.5 trillion over 10 years.

(They can compare this amount to the $14 trillion the Pentagon has spent since 9/11, according to National Public Radio. In a September 13 story, NPR also reported that Brown University Cost of War study revealed that some $7 trillion of that money went to for-profit defense contractors.)

The two Senate challengers can investigate and report exactly what special interests have financed the campaigns of Manchin and Sinema. They

can focus particularly on the largesse to the two Senators from the fossil fuel industry which certainly does not want hundreds of billions spent to fight climate change and develop clean energy.

According to recent polls, the $3.5 trillion-dollar package is extremely popular among voters in West Virginia and Arizona when the benefits are explained fully, along with the President’s plan on how to finance them.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that “a poll of 600 registered West Virginia voters found 48% support Biden’s plan. After polled voters were given the option of raising taxes on the richest Americans and corporations, while closing the loopholes that have caused significant wealth disparities, support for the plan rose as high as 70%.”

Who is ready to stand up and do battle against the tyranny of this ridiculously tiny minority of the nation?

And let’s stop calling Manchin and Cinema “moderates” for heaven’s sake. Congress members with records like theirs are certainly at least “conservative” and might even be termed “right-wing” at a time when life on earth is being destroyed and threatened every moment by the climate emergency we humans and especially our children and grandchildren are facing.

Expand full comment
Stewart Whisenant's avatar

Reading Heather's "reflective" piece this morning, I did some reflecting myself about her ongoing efforts to present the evidence about how "Republican lawmakers are actively working to undermine our democracy." Ever since she began her endeavor, famously known as Letters from an American, she has been the voice of democracy for me and countless others as the forces of fascism have gathered to undermine the power of the people as established by the Constitution. On September 15, 2021, she posted a letter about how the blog was born and expressed her gratitude to her readers for their support.

"I write these letters because I love America," she stated in part. "I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities, and I believe that American democracy could be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives."

The post evoked a flood of reader responses reflecting the power and passion of her words. Richardson has a way of inspiring readers to participate, to think, to write back in response to the issues she raises and to join the chorus of We, the People, singing the great song of Democracy throughout the land. I acknowledged in my own response to her beautiful letter how I admired the way she continues to stand up for democracy in the face of a fascist assault unprecedented in American history, also noting how the legacy of the lone, self-sufficient individual (most likely a Reagan Republican) riding off into the sunset drags on, as does what Lewis Mumford called the predatory corporate "megamachine," the industrial regime that's destroying the planet.

These are the forces that diminish the aspirations of every civic-minded citizen yearning to participate in the process of governing this nation, which is what democracy is all about. The enemies of democracy today are the same ones that coalesced around the Republican Party and enabled it to launch the class war against FDR's New Deal and the rise of democracy during the 30's. In the current era of what I call Bozo Republicanism, Richardson's voice has become the clarion call of democracy and social justice for thousands who read her letters, and when a recent Financial Times profile revealed that she had considered giving up this beautiful thing she does, I was horrified at the thought of not having Letters from an American in my email inbox to get my motor running every morning. It seems to me that her writing transmits on the same frequency as Cicero, Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony, Millicent Fawcett, Ralph Nader, Lewis Lapham, Thomas Frank, Robert Scheer, Chris Hedges, Matt Taibbi, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Rep. Barbara Lee, and many other inspired luminaries who have taken a stand for democracy and the rule of law. Chris Hedges once said a person really has only two choices when push comes to shove: either serve money and power or truth and justice. Heather Cox Richardson's choice is clearly the latter, which explains the high regard readers have for her work. She relentlessly tells the truth in support of a just, democratic society the thrives for everyone, not just a cabal of wealthy elites.

When Richardson published the September 15 thank-you letter, the gratitude flowed both ways with a torrent of appreciative sentiment coming from the multitude of Letters from an American readers. That fact speaks volumes about the respect readers share for her integrity and passion for equality. Albert Einstein famously said "a student is not a container you have to fill, but a torch you have to light up." As a writer and an educator, "lighting up torches" is what Heather is all about, empowering the hearts and minds of a growing number of like-minded people yearning for democracy and uniting together to make it a reality. Power to the People!

Expand full comment
601 more comments...

No posts