Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has benefited from waiting to reveal where he stands as the swing vote in a chamber closely divided between Democrats and Republicans.
He’s taken the same approach when it comes to the next phase of his political career: The moderate Democrat has teased possible retirement, a run for reelection to the Senate or even a presidential campaign in 2024 — possibly as an independent candidate.
During a multi-day trip to West Virginia’s capital this week, the 76-year-old expressed growing frustration with the polarized U.S. two-party system.
Fucking great time to figure that out, Joe. I’m all for ranked choice voting and options like it, but he’s just talking about a third party option, which means we’ll just feel the negative effects of the party system more quickly, and possibly spoil the election to shoo in Trump for another term. We don’t need him running for a third party as though that’s the fix, we need to overhaul the voting system as a whole. Things like ranked choice, automatic registration of voters, voting at any location, etc (not to mention getting rid of the EC) would all significantly improve the voting system, and access to it.