After Democrats have moved on, Sanders attacks moderates for opposing filibuster removal

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

OUT OF TOUCH?: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to get primary challengers for two Democrats who have been described as centrists.

While early polling suggests the Democratic Party may lose many seats in Washington next year, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is calling for primary challenges to two of the party’s existing centrists — a move that could further weaken the left’s power in the U.S. Senate.

“[It’s] not my job to tell Arizona or West Virginia what to do, but if the people in those states want new leadership, I’d be prepared to support them,” Sanders told Politico last week speaking of Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

According to an AP report from Jan. 18, Sanders, “said home-state voters would be disappointed that the pair have refused to support changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster against major voting legislation while also balking at a massive, Biden-backed spending and social plan known as Build Back Better.”

A filibuster allows a minority to delay or even prevent action on a bill, and requires 60 votes to overcome in the Senate. Senate Democrats attempted to vote to get rid of the rule, making it possible to pass future bills with a simple majority. Sinema and Manchin opposed the change, however, keeping the 60-vote threshold in place and sinking a major voting act that would have federalized U.S. elections and established Covid-era voting innovations that open the door to easy fraud.

According to the report in Politico, by taking on this effort to find far left challengers to run against these two Democrats, Sanders risks further alienating them from their own party at a time when their votes are necessary for the left to pass its agenda.

“The rest of the Democratic caucus is ready to move on and try to keep hold of their fragile majority,” Politico reported.  “… With zero margin for error, the party now desperately needs Sinema and Manchin’s votes for both a Supreme Court confirmation and a potential revival of President Joe Biden’s climate and social spending bill.”

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is the party’s campaign arm. He told Politico the stakes are very high between now and the next election for Democrats to pass some bills while they still have just enough seats to do it.

“There’s just so much at stake going forward, with the Biden administration and things we care deeply about,” he said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., expressed similar concerns to Politico.

“I want to work with all 50 Democrats and get something passed now,” she said.

Columnist Henry Olsen, writing for the Washington Post on Jan. 19, was quick to criticize the Vermont senator for being out of touch with Americans living in West Virginia and Arizona.

“It also shows how disconnected progressive ideology is from reality,” Olsen wrote. “… Indeed, Manchin — the only remaining Democrat elected statewide in West Virginia — was sent to Washington by an overwhelmingly conservative population. The fact that he and Sinema prioritize the views of their constituents over the views of progressive activists isn’t heresy; it’s democracy.”

Olsen further commented on how out of touch he felt that the Progressive Party has become with non-progressive voters.

“Progressives might be able to enforce their ideology in the ivory towers of Silicon Valley or academia, but it will not work in West Virginia or Arizona. Worse, it will likely alienate those non-progressives whose votes created the Democratic majority to begin with,” he wrote.

To the AP, Manchin said he welcomes any primary challenges.

“I’ve never run an election I wasn’t primaried. This is West Virginia, it’s rough and tumble. We’re used to that. So bring it on,” he said.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr

13 thoughts on “After Democrats have moved on, Sanders attacks moderates for opposing filibuster removal

  1. SANDERS/WYDEN, SOCIALISTIC/COMMUNISTIC BBB

    EXCERPT from:

    “BUILD BACK BETTER” WOULD COST $4.490 TRILLION OVER THE NEXT DECADE, IF PROVISIONS WERE MADE TO LAST 10 YEARS
    https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/build-back-better-would-cost-3-95-trillion-overt-the-next-decade

    I am not surprised at the lack of public trust in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. The games of smoke and mirrors played in Washington are off-the-charts outrageous.

    Never, ever, has there been such a level of deceit, as Democrats have inflicted on the US People, since January 2021, using a controversial election in 2020 (see Appendix), to obtain government power, to relentlessly implement:

    – An increased size and intrusiveness of the federal government
    – A major change in US demographics by means of just-walk-in, anybody-is-welcome, open borders
    – Increased Democrat command/control over the federal government and the American people to “Remake America”
    – Increased Federal government control of elections, which is specifically forbidden by the US Constitution

    However, Dem/Progs made a major mistake.

    – They intended to use top-down, command/control of the very-inefficient federal government to very-expensively “Remake America”.
    – Their strategy is a highly un-American approach, significantly different from the history of US economic development.
    – They never mentioned the words “private enterprise”.

    In contrast, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” specifically did not rely on government. MAGA relied on:

    – Eliminating business-stifling government rules and regulations
    – Freeing up the creative energies of the American people
    – Putting America and the American people first again, within secure borders

    BBB Intended and Unintended Consequences

    The BBB bill has a dual-purpose, 1) a society-transforming increase in social program spending, and 2) remaking the US energy sector.

    Democrats aim to use BBB to promote political patronage and transfers of wealth from lower- and middle-income taxpayers in red states, to upper middle-class and wealthy residents in blue states. This approach is regressive and likely would be reversed after the next election. See URL

    BBB would:

    1) Increase US energy costs by increasing already-generous subsidies (tax credits, rebates, grants) for:

    – Unreliable, weather/wind/sun-dependent, variable/intermittent wind and solar, which would greatly increase the costs of dealing with grid instabilities, as has happened in Germany, etc., which has the highest household electric rates in Europe.
    The increased subsidies largely would benefit wealthy, Democrat, coastal elites.

    – Expensive/unaffordable/less-useful electric vehicles known to surprise by: a) catching fire, b) performing poorly, with low efficiency in colder climates.

    According to University of Chicago research, most of the $18 billion in federal income tax credits disbursed to date were used for: a) weatherization of U.S. households, b) residential net-metered solar that produces extremely expensive electricity, and c) electric vehicles, including wasteful government experiments with electric school and transit buses.

    2) Provide tax cuts for higher-income households, in mostly high-tax, blue states, by increasing the state and local tax deduction (SALT) from $10,000 to $80,000

    PHASE 1; BBB PROGRAMS HAVE VARIOUS EXPIRATION DATES TO UNDERSTATE COST

    BBB Bill “Shaping” and Cost Estimating

    The cost of the original BBB bill was $6.0 trillion, as crafted by extreme-leftist Sanders, Chairman of the US Senate Budget Committee. When his proposals proved to be a non-starter, he was told to “whittle it down” to an alleged $3.5 trillion, which, he declared, was the “absolute minimum”. See Note.

    Whittled down means, he shortened the duration of some programs from 10 years to 1 year, or 2 years, etc., as explained in next sections. See table 4

    NOTE: Sanders is a life-long admirer of Big-Government Communism and Socialism, who celebrated his honeymoon in the USSR, i.e., before the Iron Curtain came down

    BBB Overwhelmingly a Big-Government Social Program Bill

    The cost of 16 social programs would be $3.477 trillion, or 77.5% of $4.490 trillion, if all programs last 10 years
    Two of the 16 social programs would represent 67.3% of the social program cost. See table 1

  2. This is…HE IS a perfect example of why we Need TERM LIMITS (with NO lifetime pay after or perks)
    and thats the start..We need another party to disrupt the “battle” they rage among each other to keep us PAYING …while he particularly has become VERY wealthy in his Political CAREER (NO MORE CAREER POLITIANS) at our expense, and so many more of our gov branches/feb reserve (who knows how deep it goes) creat smoke screens to keep us all bickering as well….while they make mockery of laws, rules, the Constitution….I for one have had it, I do not watch any network news (they are all in bed together), I read Vt Chronicle (Thank you so much Guy Page!), True North, and I’m done with Vt Digger (the numbers just never added up…twisted to fit the propaganda…seven days too)…oh my I am a disenfranchised older white woman…..feeling very sad at the state of affairs concerning those who are suppose work “for the people, by the people”……This Sucks…sorry but no other way to say…and HE IS NOT MY SENATOR EITHER

  3. “When will Vermont send this carpetbagger back to NY,”

    Exactly, he must really want to be back in Brooklyn as he never gave up the gutter
    accent..anyone else removed from that area’s speech would have lost it in a couple years..
    Just show’s him for the phony he is and always has been.

  4. Why should Democrats listen to a communist Independent to begin with? Unlike the
    decrepit ol commie fossil who don’t vote for Vermonters Manchin and Sinema were voting
    what their constituents wanted not what the commie socialist POS wanted…
    Anyone with half a brain can see the d’s are going to need the filibuster after the shellacking
    their going to take in the mid terms but our embarrassment can only see his one big spending
    splurge that undoubtedly will be his last.. the hell with the taxpayers full speed ahead on
    flushing our tax money down the socialist hole…

  5. Hey Bernie.. you’re our voice but we dont support what you say. Not my senator. Never have been, never will be. I heard Pat Leahy is looking for a fishing buddy but you probably dont fish cause trout’s lives matter. C’mon man!!

  6. Many Democrat US Senators, including Schumer, were DEFENDING the filibuster on numerous occasions, when it was in THEIR favor to do so.

    How do we know this?

    C-SPAN, etc., has a profusion of videos in the public domain. Just google

    In addition, one Democrat Senator had a major heart attack.

    He likely will not be in the Senate for months.

    It looks like the good Lord is not on the side of the Dem/Progs

    Sanders, Schumer, and Co. are desperate to pass anything called BBB, of a universal voting bill, before the November 2022 Elections

    They first need to destroy the filibuster.

    Gee, why not ramp up election cheating, by counting votes of people who are dead, who never existed, who moved out of state, who are illegal, who are underage, who are criminals, who are registered, but almost never vote.

    Just make up a whole lot of fictitious names. and vote them as well.

    Do some universal harvesting at a cost of $10/ballot, and deposit the fake ballots in unsupervised drop boxes.

    “Elected” Democrats would be seated, before any entity could find out what happened to have a proper court case, several months later.

  7. Sanders never built anything worthwhile or beneficial for Vermont. He just attacks and tears down–the original ‘cancel culture clown.’ And he certainly doesn’t limit his ire and rants to Vermont. He spends more time nit-picking the actions of other states and their representatives than he does representing the State of Vermont and working on the behalf of Vermonters. He’s just a self serving, worthless embarrassment for our State…

  8. Bernie the full fledged Communist forked over once again by his fellow traveling Communist Lite’s,give it up the only people stupid enough to vote for you in mass are your fellow travelers or is that ex hippies in Vermont

  9. Here we go again, Vermont’s Barking Buffoon trying to show how relevant he really thinks
    he is, he sides with the DemocRATs the same party that stopped in on his presidential run
    twice, doesn’t he fly under the ” Independent ” banner ………………did I mention a buffoon !!

    When will Vermont send this carpetbagger back to NY, If the DemocRATs really had
    a viable plan, why wouldn’t they want to debate it and get a consensus……Nah, they
    know the only way they’ll get a bill passed, will be in the dark of night, just like the last
    election………… The truth will set you free !!

    Vermont should hang its head in shame having him represent the state…….pretty pathetic.

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