Ads draw Manchin’s worst

For Sen. Joe Manchin III, the willingness to stand up to the Washington liberals in his own party is central to his political identity. As a Democrat in deep-red West Virginia, his survival depends on being seen as a bulwark against raging leftist excess and an enforcer of bipartisanship against Democratic efforts to pass legislation on a partisan basis.

These instincts are being preyed upon in remarkably cynical fashion by at least one right-wing group eager to keep the filibuster in place. Which demonstrates how ideals of bipartisanship are being corrupted to protect a deeply broken status quo in Washington — and, paradoxically, to enable Republican partisanship to render that status quo as dysfunctional as possible.

Punchbowl News has an important new report on the TV ad wars raging in West Virginia, as groups seek to push Manchin, including on the Build Back Better agenda. From the left, ads tout BBB’s benefits for his state. From the right, ads hype inflation to render BBB politically toxic (an argument that has worked on him).

But the ad wars over the filibuster are particularly instructive. One example is a spot from a right-wing group with the Orwellian name of Election Transparency Initiative.

“Washington liberals are trying to change Senate rules to advance a radical agenda,” the ad intones, flashing the usual scary pictures of liberal Democrats.

The ad claims the filibuster facilitates “bipartisanship,” and insists ending it would promote “dysfunction” and “polarization.” It hails Manchin for showing the fortitude to “protect the filibuster, despite partisan pressure to cave.”

This ad first aired back in September. But it’s newly relevant now. First, Punchbowl just tallied up the total spent on ads to defend the filibuster thus far. It’s nearly $1 million — in West Virginia alone.

Second, President Joe Biden has now told ABC News that he supports a filibuster “carve-out” to advance legislation protecting voting rights. That big step forward ensures renewed pressure on Manchin to back a carve-out— and more pressure from the right not to.

This ad shows how disgusting that latter effort can get.

The Election Transparency Initiative is run by former Donald Trump official Ken Cuccinelli, who became the spokesman for Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and an apologist for the administration’s deployment of federal law enforcement amid 2020 protests and unrest.

The group’s efforts to maintain the filibuster are about realizing its true goal of thwarting passage of democracy protections. To that end, it’s running ads that purport to stand for smoothly functioning bipartisanship, good government and protecting the will of the people (its ad says ending the filibuster would betray West Virginia voters).

In reality, the filibuster does the opposite of those things. It incentivizes the GOP to withhold bipartisan cooperation for purely cynical ends. It allows GOP senators to grind the chamber to a halt by emailed statement, dodging accountability for sabotaging the sort of functional governance voters like.

And the filibuster is also requiring a supermajority in the Senate to defend and expand voting rights. This, even as GOP legislatures are restricting them everywhere by simple majority, and indeed further entrenching minority rule. Keeping the filibuster is a funny way to protect the expression of the people’s will.

But the folk theory of the filibuster is powerful. It seems plausible that requiring both parties to contribute to legislation would facilitate bipartisanship, especially to voters who may not know how it’s being abused.

And the filibuster is thwarting passage of policies that are not remotely radical. These include cracking down on rich tax cheats and multinational corporate tax avoidance, and sending more money to support children, which would disproportionately benefit places like West Virginia.

Yet the imperative of being perceived taking on the “radicals” in his own party exerts a powerful pull, even if what the party is pushing isn’t actually radical and would benefit his own state.

In response, reformers should perhaps argue that the filibuster helps block popular economic policy as well as voting rights. “It’s no surprise that rightwing special interest groups are desperate to protect the filibuster as a partisan weapon to kill popular legislation,” Eli Zupnick of Fix Our Senate told me.

Manchin, unfortunately, appears to genuinely buy into the folk theory of the filibuster himself, and into the idea that the Senate can recapture some alleged bygone Golden Bipartisan Age. As he discovers that no Republicans will support protecting democracy, he may ultimately realize the deep folly of this posture.

But however possible that is, acting to protect democracy on a partisan basis will always be hard for Manchin, given his need to be seen as a staunch defender of bipartisanship as a bulwark against unchecked Democratic partisan excess. Ads like this one are designed to reinforce his worst instincts, and to make it harder for him to grow past them.