#1424 Fighting with at least two hands tied (Conservative Democrats Manchin and Sinema)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2021
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 6/19/2021
Today we take a look at the politics of obstruction in service to big donors' interests while sacrificing the ability to run a functioning democracy in the process.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: West Virginia's Robyn Kincaid on the maddening Joe Manchin - The BradCast - Air Date 6-9-21
Robyn Kincaid explains the mysteries of Manchin, the history of his family's political dynasty in the state, and key factors that may be at work in Manchin's inexplicable obstruction of Biden and the Democrats' agenda.
Ch. 2: How Kyrsten Sinema Sold Out w/ Aída Chávez - Start Making Sense - Air Date 3-31-21
The political transformation of Kyrsten Sinema, the new senator from Arizona: She’s one of the two most conservative Democrats in the Senate—but Aida Chavez explains that she started out to the left of the Party.
Breaking down the conflict-averse nature of the Democratic Party.
Ch. 4: Breaking Down President Biden's $6 Trillion 2022 Budget - The Takeaway - Air Date 5-28-21
The president's budget attempts to incorporate plans on infrastructure, housing, and healthcare, and is likely to receive conservative backlash for raising the federal deficit.
Ch. 5: What Does Joe Manchin Want? John Nichols on Filibuster Reform - Start Making Sense - Air Date 6-9-21
Congressional action could block voter law changes—but that requires filibuster reform, and Joe Manchin says he won’t vote for filibuster reform. What does Joe Manchin want? John Nichols comments.
Ch. 6: Joe Manchin Gets Candid With Billionaire Donors in Leaked Audio - Deconstructed - Air Date 6-16-21
Sen. Joe Manchin reveals his thoughts on the filibuster in a leaked Zoom call with fundraisers.
Ch. 7: Does America Have a Chance At Democracy? - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 6-12-21
When a political party is more obsessed with identity than issues - America is in trouble. Can America function as a multi-racial, ethnic, religious democracy?
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 8: How Kyrsten Sinema Sold Out w/ Aída Chávez Part 2 - Start Making Sense - Air Date 3-31-21
The political transformation of Kyrsten Sinema, the new senator from Arizona: She’s one of the two most conservative Democrats in the Senate—but Aida Chavez explains that she started out to the left of the Party.
Explaining Manchin's love of being the center of attention and those who love to use him as a shield against criticism
BONUS
Ch. 10: Curation Lesson #4
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 11: Final comments on Bo Burnham's "Inside"
TAKE ACTION!
June 21st in D.C. & Virtual: Poor People's Campaign: March to Demand a 3rd Reconstruction | TW: @UniteThePoor
Pressure Manchin & Sinema via No Excuses PAC | TW: NoExcuses_PAC
Pressure Manchin via West Virginia Can’t Wait |TW: @WVCantWait
Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Abolish The Filibuster | Song A Day #4542 - Jonathan Mann
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: Composite image. Photo of Sen. Kristen Sinema (D-AZ) on the left and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on the right. More than half of their images are overlaid with red, the rest with blue. A vector image of the U.S. Capitol is in the foreground, a rope is coiled around the dome being pulled at each end out of view.
Credit: Composite image designed by Amanda Hoffman
Image 1: "Kyrsten Sinema" by Gage Skidmore, Flickr | License | Changes: Cropped with overlays
Image 2: "FAA REAUTHORIZATION LEGISLATION" by Senate Democrats, Flickr | License | Changes: Cropped with overlays
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.5 | a look at the politics of obstruction in the service of big donors' interests while |
| 0:13.3 | sacrificing the ability to run a functioning democracy in the process. |
| 0:18.5 | To win-win, clips today are from the Bradcast, Startmaking Sense, the Majority Report, |
| 0:25.2 | the Takeaway, Deconstructed, and the Tom Hartman program. |
| 0:35.4 | Action fun survey found that the bill was extremely popular among all voters in the state, |
| 0:41.4 | Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike, and West Virginia respondents supported the |
| 0:47.2 | bill by 79% to 15% in favor of the four-the-people act, which Joe Manchin opposes. The Democratic |
| 1:00.5 | proposal also enjoys high levels of support among Republicans, specifically, despite ongoing |
| 1:06.2 | efforts from several right-wing dark money groups to have the state senators vote against |
| 1:11.8 | it because, well, among other things, it gets their dark money out of our elections, and |
| 1:18.1 | it helps prevent billionaires that run those dark money groups from buying elections. |
| 1:24.6 | That's why, of course, not a single Republican member is supporting the bill, nor will they |
| 1:29.5 | support it. That's their money, as they see it. That's their way to buy elections. That |
| 1:34.5 | would be taken away from them with HR1. Last month, the right-wing dark money group |
| 1:40.4 | Heritage Action said that it will run television ads and activate volunteers in West Virginia |
| 1:46.7 | in opposition of HR1, that according to Fox News. Jessica Anderson, the group's executive |
| 1:52.6 | director, said, quote, we have mobilized our two million grassroots activists across |
| 1:57.9 | the country to drive calls, letters to the editor, and events in Manchin's backyard. |
| 2:05.0 | Their dark money group One Nation announced that it will devote $1.85 million to place |
| 2:11.2 | TV and radio ads opposing the For the People Act, and supporting the filibuster across |
| 2:17.2 | both West Virginia and Arizona, where that states Democratic Senator Kiersten Sinema has |
... |
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