Manchin is my type of Democrat. I'm also totally against packing the SCOTUS and against ending the last minority party rights in the senate. Manchin voted Trump's position 32.5% of the time. Sinema, Arizona did so 51.5% of the time, Warner Virginia 35.5%, King Maine 38%, Nelson Florida 43%, and some more who voted the with Trump more than Manchin.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/Manchin has an independent streak in him, that I really like. What it means is Manchin is probably attuned to the people and state of West Virginia that he represents. More so than a lot of other senators who just vote the party line while telling the folks back home to go to Hades in a hand basket.
Perhaps the big question is, do we elect representatives and senators to represent us, the people back home in their district or state or do we elect representatives and senators to represent just their political party?
The conscientious about the die hard partisan's is the later, for us not affiliated with either party, it's the former.
An aside, I always felt any president should be able to appoint those individuals he wants such as in his cabinet and other positions. A simple majority vote on confirmation is just fine with me on these. These folks are there for just the term of the president, not beyond. But I am all in favor when it comes to the federal judiciary which includes the SCOTUS of having a 2/3rds vote for confirmation. Especially since these judges are appointed for life.
This would mean all federal judges must be approved by at least some of the minority party. It would also mean any president would know he must nominate someone which could gain the approval of at least some of the other party members. this could eliminate some of the politics involved in selecting federal judges.
