OK
1. I believe that the $15 minimum wage is popular. I believe that a lower minimum wage is more popular and the difference in that popularity is due to more support in rural areas. Florida is one of the most densely populated states in the US with a very high cost of living. Even then the bill had much more Pub support in counties either in population centers or close to population centers. In the rural panhandle counties, it didn't fare as well. This goes back to my point about who this would really impact when looking at red states vs blue states from a national perspective.
2. The amendment was misguided because all of the Pubs were going to vote against it and you know at least 2 dems were. So it was going to fail. We knew yesterday and we knew it weeks ago.
3. At that point, how other dems voted on this performative amendment really didn't matter to me. I don't care about virtue signaling. But I would imagine that they are more in tune about how this would play in their state than the progressive intelligensia on this board. NH for instance is a pretty rural state. Others voted it down because they knew that it would bog down the covid bill or that there should be some debate due to the disparate effect this would have on different parts of the country.
4. Personally, for the reasons I have posted, I don't think this is the hill we should die on. The hill we should die on is the HR 1 voting rights act.
Does that help you understand my thoughts on the subject?
I take several issues with this:
- the $15 minimum wage is popular nationally (around 60%); I can only find one poll from WV and it's by a left-wing group, but it also shows 63% support it. You yourself support it. And yet you seem so wiling to be supportive of the party being held hostage by Manchin because of your perceived inevitability of it all instead of saying "hey, this is not good -- the party should push for this"
- you say this is not a hill you want to die on, but it's hard not to be dismissive of this as someone who (presumably based on info you've posted) does not experience a great deal of financial hardship due to low wages; it smacks of a bit of elitism because, at the end of the day, the livability of your wage is not at stake.
- the hill you
do want to die on requires the end of the filibuster, which Manchin said he will never support; perhaps you think he was posturing to leverage his position, but there has been no evidence that he will move on that piece, thus leaving us with two hills and none dead
- I can't help but feel there is a double standard at play from the moderates. when Manchin and other right-wing Dems hold the party hostage and prevent the amendment from passing, the bringing of the bill to vote is deemed "performative"; however, should someone like Bernie do the same on, say, trade, there is no doubt in my mind that the moderate Dems would not accuse the ones who brought the trade bill to a vote of being "performative"
- the above relates to the idea that you can replace Bernie with another Democrat in a state like Vermont, no problem, but if not Manchin in WV then inevitably a Republican. Perhaps some truth to that, but if he is blocking voting rights reform and he is blocking the minimum wage, what value is his presence in the Senate to the Democrats? The answer, most certainly, comes down to the speakership. But again, what does it matter if bills are blocked by the speaker instead of blocked by Manchin's vote? Sure, there is a category of bills that would have been blocked by McConnell yet passed with Manchin as a yes -- but what are those bills? The stimulus checks that Trump himself supported? Manchin doesn't support the Green New Deal, ending the filibuster, universal healthcare, a livable wage, or really anything that I can identify of note. So what bills are being passed on account of him being a Democrat instead of a Republican? My hope is there are some things that I do not know about -- improved child tax credits or universal daycare or something I'm less familiar with that will improve the lives of the most vulnerable.
- the price of the above -- holding the speakership yet not actually passing any progressive legislation -- is that the Dems are now the party of leadership for a Senate that cannot move forward on popular progressive ideas. they set themselves up to get the blame for none of the rewards.
