There’s Been a Bit of a Rebellion Within the Democratic Party Lately, and That’s a Good Thing.
It’s nice to see progressive lawmakers standing up for themselves and their ideas.
--
After months of Joe Manchin acting as the de facto President in an effort to block virtually any progressive legislation from passing, it was incredibly refreshing to see Representatives like Katie Porter calling him out in a public fashion. In doing so she’s making it perfectly clear that she’s willing to use her leverage just like he is, and ensuring she has a seat at the table for discussions regarding the infrastructure and budget bill in the coming weeks. Of course, thankfully, Representative Porter is not alone, and it appears as though the frustration might be getting to Senator Manchin.
Recently, Manchin responded to AOC’s statement discussing what she called Manchin’s weekly “huddles” with Exxon Mobile. On CNN, he said:
“I don’t know that young lady that well. I really don’t. I have met her one time, I think, between sets here. But that’s it. So we have not had any conversations. She’s just speculating and saying things because she wants to,”
AOC took to twitter to respond, writing:
“In Washington, I usually know my questions of power are getting somewhere when the powerful stop referring to me as ‘Congresswoman’ and start referring to me as ‘young lady’ instead. Imagine if every time someone referred to someone as “young lady” they were ask responded to by being addressed with their age and gender? They’d be pretty upset if one responded with ‘the old man,’ right? Why this kind of weird, patronizing behavior is so accepted is beyond me!”
Patronizing, indeed.
When asked no less than seven times by CNN host Dana Bash what he thinks the budget bill should cost, Manchin could not answer. Why? Because he knows his position of lowering the amount is not popular. Of course, it’s thanks to lawmakers like AOC and Katie Porter that he’s being forced into that kind of a position in the first place.
It wasn’t long ago where heated, public back and forth discussions like this would be unheard of within the Democratic party, and it’s because of the long…
