Robert Reich Goes Nuclear, Wants to Kick Joe Manchin Out of the Dem Party to Save the Midterms

Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, today proposed kicking Joe Manchin (D-WV) out of the Democrat Party.

In the process, Reich exposed how little he understands how Congress works as Manchin has voted with the party 90% of the time since Joe Biden took office.

Given the fact that the Democrats only control the Senate by one vote, if Manchin were to switch parties, the gavel would then go to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Reich was unconcerned with that, as he wrote, “Well, I have news for Democrats. They already lost control over the Senate.”

However, there have been multiple votes that have passed so far this year that wouldn’t have done so if McConnell was in charge.

In the substack piece, Reich claimed:

“In fact, the way things are right now, Biden and the Democrats have the worst of both worlds. They look like they control the Senate, as well as the House and the presidency.”

“But they can’t get a damn thing done because Manchin (and his intermittent sidekick Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema) won’t let them.”

“So after almost two years of appearing to run the entire government, Democrats have accomplished almost nothing of what they came to Washington to do.”

“America is burning and flooding but Democrats won’t enact climate measures. Voting rights and reproductive rights are being pulverized but Democrats won’t protect them.”

“Gun violence is out of control but Democrats come up with a miniature response. Billionaires and big corporations are siphoning off more national wealth and income than in living memory and paying a lower tax rate (often zero), but Democrats won’t raise taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.”

Reich then attempted to explain how a move to expel Manchin would somehow help Democrats in November’s midterm elections, where he said that they will have to go back to voters and say “we promised a lot but we delivered squat, so please vote for us again.”

“By kicking Manchin out of the party, Democrats could at least go into the midterms with a more realistic pitch: ‘It looked like we had control of the Senate, but we didn’t. Now that you know who the real Democrats are, give us the power and we will get it done.'”

“Maybe this way they’ll pick up more real Democratic senators, and do it,” Reich concluded.