It is very difficult to be one of the leaders of one of the three branches of our federal government and yet have no power whatsoever. The whole point of becoming a leader is to have power and wield it, whether carefully or with reckless abandon.
In fact, to be one of the key leaders of government in Washington and yet have no power whatsoever is a feat previously thought to be impossible. But one man looked at the dystopic wasteland of Washington D.C. in the aftermath of the 2020 election and thought “I am going to achieve the impossible.”
That man is Chuck Schumer.
The Senator from New York is, essentially, the leader of the Senate. Through him, the business of the Senate is scheduled. Through him, the final negotiations of what his party, the party in power, seeks. Their opponents are the Republican Party, technically splitting the Senate with them but powerless as they have a tie-breaking vote.
And yet, Schumer is beholden to a small group of Senators who will not allow his party to destroy the filibuster and pass a highly questionable bill expanding the federal government’s role in our elections. Members of his own party aren’t down with the cause.
The leader of these centrists is Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Now, when we use the term “centrist”, we don’t mean it ideologically. Manchin is a fairly liberal guy with a voting record to back that up. His centrism, however, is based in his belief that regular order in the Senate requires the tools necessary to keep the institution from being corrupted – a belief shared by a majority of Democrats. Manchin, from his position as the maker or breaker of the Democratic Party agenda, is the most powerful man in the Senate and, arguably, second only to President Joe Biden in terms of power.