President Joe Biden is correct to blame Congress for the political stalemate blocking action on bills to address urgent issues such as climate change and abortion rights — action that most Americans want to see. But no amount of complaining about Republican obstinacy and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s swing-vote ambivalence will change the fundamentals of American democracy: Those who vote are the real change-makers, and those who stay at home on Election Day have only themselves to blame for the consequences.
American voters can complain about Biden all they want, but the upcoming midterm elections are the only way to break the current congressional impasse that prevents substantive work from getting done. The current 50-50 balance in the Senate is a prescription for continued stalemate. Manchin, a West Virginian with strong conservative sympathies, effectively holds the keys to the kingdom. If he supports something the Democrats want, there’s a chance the measure can pass. If Manchin opposes it — as he increasingly does on substantive issues — then Democrats’ initiatives are doomed to failure.
Manchin last week effectively killed a bill to fight global warming. His vote reflected both voter sentiments in his coal-dependent state as well as his personal financial interests in the coal-industry. It appears that no amount of fires rampaging across California and New Mexico and, this week, Europe, will convince Manchin and West Virginians that human-caused global warming is a reality.
A survey this year by three top universities found that substantial majorities of American adults believe global warming is a reality, and most say it is human-caused. Those findings hold up even in red states like Texas, Arizona, Florida and Missouri, while only 43% of West Virginians think it’s human-caused. A fascinating, granular interactive map of public attitudes is available at climatecommunication.yale.edu.
Here’s the problem: When adults are asked if they believe global warming will harm them personally, sentiments swing in the direction of heavy skepticism — even in fire-prone parts of California and hurricane-prone Florida. Texans, except for those along the Mexico border, just don’t seem fazed by summer after summer of record stretches of 100-plus temperatures. Therein lies the power of obstructionists like Manchin.
Americans should be close to the tipping point where they recognize the personal harm they feel from decisions made by Congress. The fragile Texas power grid eventually will collapse again as it did during winter 2020 during a record cold snap, only perhaps this time as temperatures hover this week between 105 and 110 degrees in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. Women in Texas and in other red states will eventually realize that they cannot protect their own rights unless they change their congressional representation.
But if events like massive fires, record heat waves, gun massacres, revocation of abortion rights and the destruction of democracy aren’t enough to create that tipping point, we shudder to think: What, exactly, is it going to take?
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