Thanks for the explanation.
Yes, Manchin is pretty much a climate change denier. I certainly see the reasoning for it with so much coal money coming to the state, and his personal wealth dependent on it.
I can also understand that WV was a very unionized state, therefore almost always going for Democrats. And a few decades ago, there were plenty of conservative Democrats. So I understand the historical perspective on him being a Democrat.
I do not think he has even the slightest interest in the current Democratic Party. The conservative Dems in the past knew that key to their success was giving the Dems some wins. Manchin had Biden’s full attention and could have gotten major concessions on BBB (not getting everything but a lot of what he wanted), but he decided he liked the attention of being the troublemaker more. When he made his final announcement (on Fox), he basically admitted there was no plan he would support. That is NOT being an intelligent member of the party, pulling it to the right a bit in hopes of moderating the progressives. It is full-on sabotage.
So to me the answer of why he is a Democrat is a mix of the history (and the votes associated with it) and the fact that he has a huge amount of power as a functional Republican with a “D” next to his name. If he switched to Republican, he’d be just another face in the crowd.
