I assume you’re talking about Manchin. You should be thanking your lucky stars the Democrats have him. Without Manchin, Mitch McConnell would be majority leader with the GOP controlling the senate. Except for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, nothing on your list would have been accomplished.

As for independents, “it’s the economy stupid,” to use a phrase coined by James Carville. Bill Clinton political adviser. 37% of independents list inflation as their most important issue. Climate change is third at 9%. Abortion is way down the list at 4%. I see nothing on your list outside of climate change independents care about and that’s 28 points behind the economy. I agree with Greger, most independents don’t care who controls congress. The rule of thumb when it comes to how independents vote, generally anyway, is if their wallet is getting fatter, they vote for the party in power. If their wallet is thinning or flat, they’ll vote for the party out of power. It’s worked that way for a long time. For the most part, independents aren’t political junkies, if something don’t affect them, they don’t care. Everything on your list doesn’t affect independents as much as inflation and rising prices do. It’s quite simple really.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.