Hi Friend, I want to write today in praise of one of our movement’s most important leaders – Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The disproportionate and unseemly power of the political extremes that dominate our national discourse and political decision making is exactly why it is so challenging for Senator Manchin to do what he does and that’s exactly why we are fighting against these forces. However, it isn’t just about speaking out frankly about where we are as a nation and where we need to go, although it is great that Joe does that. (I call him “Joe” here because, well, that’s how he insists folks back home and in D.C. address him.) What makes him so important – and, sadly, so unusual – is that he always moves with calmness and consistency towards that North Star that guides us as well: Two-party solutions are better than partisan ones. Senator Manchin understands the current environment that we have been stuck in for the last 40 (or so) years and knows that bipartisanship isn’t going to happen on its own. It takes a lot of effort, some risks, a willingness to go against the grain, to take the high road, even if that high road is a long and winding one. Just this week, Senator Manchin crossed the Capitol to meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy to secure a pledge to work jointly to find a solution to the impasse over the debt ceiling that doesn’t involve some quick and dirty attempt to shore up Social Security and Medicare. Senator Manchin knows three important things about those programs: They are vitally important to tens of millions of Americans; those folks deserve not to be scared about their future; and stabilizing the programs’ finances will require the kind of sustained bipartisan, bicameral discussions that Joe has become, rightly, famous for. And Senator Manchin also knows (which was what motived him to get McCarthy on board) that the debt ceiling faceoff needs to be resolved long before any entitlement deal could be reached. What Joe did was smart, sensible, pragmatic, and in the national interest. Since no one else was getting it done, he stepped up to do it. As he so often does. So this week, I would like you to join me in celebrating Senator Manchin’s staunch and vital commitment to saying and doing the right thing when it comes to meeting America’s big challenges with both eyes trained on commonsense, centrist solutions, rather than on the braying and chaos of the extremes. | 
