It’s Past Time For New Political Party

All pol­i­tics is local; that is a giv­en. So it is under­stand­able that Democrat, Independent or Republican, can­di­dates must cater to the needs of their con­stituents or face expul­sion by the voters.
So we cringe at can­di­dates who are elect­ed as Democrats but seem to be any­thing but when we look at their vot­ing records.
Mark Kelly, Christen Sinema, and Joe Manchin are three that read­i­ly come to mind. All three are Democratic US Senators; Kelly and Sinema were elect­ed in Arizona, a state that nar­row­ly went to Joe Biden in 2020 but has been a Republican strong­hold for decades. Both Senators now hold seats that Republicans John McCain and Jeff Flake recent­ly held.
On the oth­er hand, Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, did I say West Virginia Democrat? That sound­ed real­ly off, an oxy­moron even.… any­way, Manchin still man­ages to win statewide in West Virginia, one of the red­dest states still in the ide­o­log­i­cal clutch­es of the Republican right.
In a state like West Virginia that vot­ed by over 40% points for Donald Trump, a Democrat in statewide office is a rar­i­ty, but Manchin, a son of the state, is well known.
He has been on the grind polit­i­cal­ly for decades and is known per­son­al­ly by almost all West Virginians. So they con­tin­ue to vote for the for­mer gov­er­nor, turned US Senator.
In the greater scheme of things, Joe Manchin is a self-serv­ing polit­i­cal hus­tler who thinks of Joe Manchin.
Not telling the whole truth (IS) lying. Pretending to cher­ish or crave bipar­ti­san­ship with­out cre­dence to Republicans’ efforts to destroy vot­ing rights is a duplic­i­tous and trans­par­ent lie by Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin is not a man of hon­or; he is a rapa­cious and schem­ing Wolf in sheep clothing.
Manchin must be called out for what he is; an ene­my to the rights or peo­ple of col­or to vote.
Nevertheless, despite Manchin’s treach­ery, at least to the left of the Democratic Party, the par­ty can­not ignore the real­i­ty that if there were no Joe Manchin from West Virginia, there would be no Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer.
And so the par­ty is forced to play ball with Manchin, a con­ser­v­a­tive Republican pre­tend­ing to be a Democrat. There is no Democrat major­i­ty with­out Joe Manchin, the Democrays in the Senate knows it ‚but no one knows it more than Manchin. And so Manchin is going to exact his pound if flesh with­out wor­ry about the spilled blood. In the mean­time Dems can only grin and wave.

Joe Manchin is a man who plays the polit­i­cal game in a way that oth­ers can’t because his very polit­i­cal sur­vival hinges on it.

REPUBLICANS DUMP LIZ CHENEY FROM LEADERSHIP ROLE
The Republican cau­cus on Wednesday dumped Wyoming right-wing con­gress­woman Liz Cheney from her num­ber three spot in lead­er­ship as con­fer­ence chairperson.
Cheney com­mit­ted the car­di­nal sin of hav­ing spo­ken the truth that Donald Trump inspired and egged on the January 6^th insur­rec­tion that invad­ed the US capi­tol build­ing. She also rub­bished the Trump claim that the elec­tion was stolen from him and that the elec­tions of 2020 were rigged.
Liz Cheney also vot­ed to impeach Donald Trump for his actions the sec­ond time around and has since spo­ken out, includ­ing in an op-ed where she called out her par­ty for its con­tin­ued alle­giance to Trump.
Her oust­ing came as no sur­prise as the Republican Party under Kevin McCarthy, and Mitch McConnell’s lead­er­ship has become the par­ty of Trump.
South Carolina US Senator Lindsay Graham lays it bare, argu­ing that the bulk of Republican vot­ers are with Trump, and so the par­ty [can­not] move on with­out him.
But the quag­mire in which the par­ty found itself was not its only option; the par­ty had the option of build­ing out its base of sup­port by becom­ing more inclu­sive and wel­com­ing of all Americans.
President George W Bush attract­ed a size­able chunk of the Hispanic vote and some African-Americans in his sec­ond term.
Donald Trump had oth­er ideas, push the par­ty to become a fas­cist par­ty of white peo­ple and turn out that block. The thing that bog­gles the mind is that Republicans find Trump’s strat­e­gy appeal­ing despite evi­dence that the Russians aid­ed his ascen­den­cy to the pres­i­den­cy in 2016. Since then, they lost the House, the Senate, Governorships, and oth­er local leg­isla­tive seats. The part also saw Arizona and Georgi flip to blue under Trump, and Democrats take over four US Senate seats in Arizona & Georgia. Additionally, Trump now has the dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion of being the only pres­i­dent to be impeached twice.….…… Did I men­tion that he was a one-term president?

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Ever since the Republican par­ty chose the Trump option over expand­ing its appeal to the American elec­torate„ I have held the belief that the time has come for the for­ma­tion of a third polit­i­cal par­ty, one that may be cen­ter-right, just not anoth­er place for white racists to congregate.
I even argued that the Lincoln Project should be that group which splits the Republican par­ty into two groups ren­der­ing it irrel­e­vant, how­ev­er the LinconlnProject has had some prob­lems of it’s own that may have ren­dered it not so appealing.
There are now new rum­blings that a group of for­mer Republicans may be think­ing of form­ing an explorato­ry com­mit­tee that would look at he fea­si­bil­i­ty of form­ing a thrid polit­i­cal party.
Reuters report­ed that the ear­ly stage dis­cus­sions include for­mer elect­ed Republicans, for­mer offi­cials in the Republican admin­is­tra­tions of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambas­sadors and Republican strate­gists, the peo­ple involved say. More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to dis­cuss the break­away group, which would run on a plat­form of “prin­ci­pled con­ser­vatism,” includ­ing adher­ence to the Constitution and the rule of law — ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump.
My per­son­al belief is that this is an idea whose time has come, sure­ly a Democracy requires two polit­i­cal par­ties that believes the exist­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al order.
The Republican par­ty no longer believes in that order, the par­ty is now a grave dan­ger to the American con­sti­tu­tion and the rule of law.
I can­not wait for a new polit­i­cal par­ty that will restore some sem­blance of respect for Democracy and the rule of law..

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com