With the announcement last week that Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) is not running for reelection, it is now obvious that “No Labels” and similar groups other groups such as “Third Way” are not “centrist” groups, but are actually more in line with progressive causes and the Democratic Party.
Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett is “sad” about Manchin’s decision to bow out of running for another term — almost certainly meaning that a Republican will win the seat next year — because “we’re going to lose that seat.” For all the talk about a “third way” between the Democrats and the Republicans, Bennett’s remark indicates that his heart is with the Democratic Party, rather than some supposed “third way.”
No Labels has expressed interest in seeing Manchin run for president on its ticket, but officials with the group insist that they would not run a candidate if it would cause former President Donald Trump to regain the White House. Many Democrats still blame consumer advocate Ralph Nader for then-Vice President Al Gore’s narrow loss to Texas Governor George Bush in the 2000 presidential race. Nader was the candidate of the Green Party that year, and he captured many more votes than the 587-vote margin that caused Gore to lose Florida — and thus the Electoral College — to Bush. The Democratic Party presumption is that all of Nader’s votes, or at least most of them, would have gone to Gore. But, of course, many of the votes received by Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, a long-time Republican and a former aide to Republican President Ronald Reagan, would have gone to Bush.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned that a third-party candidate sponsored by No Labels would elect Trump over President Joe Biden. “No Labels is perilous to our democracy,” Pelosi argued, because it would “jeopardize the reelection of Joe Biden as president of the United States.” This statement of Pelosi’s, equating a peril to “democracy” should Biden lose next year, demonstrates that all the Democratic talk about devotion to “democracy” simply means that they want their party to win. One would think that trying to keep Trump off the ballot next year in several states is the real attack on “democracy,” if democracy is defined as letting voters choose public officials in elections.
(It should be noted that the Constitution established a republic, not a democracy, because the Founders valued liberty, not mob rule. As Benjamin Franklin once said, pure democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on what’s for dinner).
Nancy Jacobson has been the board president of No Labels since its founding, and became the CEO of the group last year. Jacobson has been actively involved in politics for several years, having served as the Finance director for the Democratic National Committee. She was also a major fundraiser for Democrat presidential hopeful Gary Hart in 1984, followed by a similar service to Al Gore’s 1988 presidential campaign and Bill Clinton’s presidential run in 1992. Of course, Clinton and Gore were the presidential ticket of the Democratic Party in 1992. Former Senator Joe Liebermann, Gore’s 2000 running-mate, was a founding co-chair of No Labels.
Claiming “non-partisanship” is a frequent ploy of the Left in advancing their causes, usually through the Democratic Party. For example, the supposed “non-partisan” effort to take congressional redistricting powers away from the state legislatures (to whom it was given by the U.S. Constitution) and give it to “non-partisan” commissions is designed to help Democratic Party chances for more favorable redistricting in states with Republican majorities in their legislatures. It is common sense that a person who is motivated enough to serve on non-partisan commissions is going to be either a Democrat or a Republican. After all, “independents” are much less likely to vote than citizens registered in the Democratic or Republican parties.
“Reaching across the aisle” is a phrase often parroted by those in the media and elsewhere, referring to Democrats and Republicans working together to achieve some good for the country. In reality, such “reaching across the aisle” is almost always a “moderate” Republican adopting a Democratic Party position. The “reaching” never seems to include a Democrat moving toward the Republican position.
Republicans seen as “darlings” of the media and the No Labels crowd are those, such as John McCain and Mitt Romney, who will help the Democratic cause, such as when Romney voted to convict President Trump on an impeachment charge, or when McCain infamously cast the deciding vote to save ObamaCare. After offering indications that he was going to oppose a Biden bill, Manchin, on the other hand, buckled in the end and voted with his fellow Democrats. And, Manchin’s caucusing with the Democrats, while he claimed to be some sort of “centrist,” kept the Democrats in power in the U.S. Senate. Not surprisingly, McCain supported Manchin for reelection a few years ago — over his Republican opponent.
There is a label for such Republicans — RINO.
