Scare talk on steroids

JOE MANCHIN IS USED TO FRIENDLY FIRE. As a proudly independent Democrat in a 50-50 Senate, the West Virginian is seen by his progressive colleagues as the biggest roadblock on the road to social democratic Nirvana. That makes him the target of much opprobrium.

But the attacks on Manchin reached a new level of ferocity last month when he announced that he did not support, and would not be voting for, the For The People Act, a sweeping set of election-related reforms that Joe Biden has identified as one of his administration’s top legislative priorities.

Jamaal Bowman, a left-wing Congressman from New York, said that his colleague was, “the new Mitch McConnell” (the comparison to the top-ranking Republican in the Senate was not meant as a compliment) and accused Manchin of “doing everything in his power to stop democracy”.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, also a New York representative and maybe the most influential progressive