An Open Letter to AOC

Dear AOC,

We’ll give you a pass for your ridiculous claim that you represent “as many people, if not more, than Joe Manchin.” After all, ridiculous claims are your stock-in-trade, and you’ve demonstrated time and again that you suck at math.

(But for the record, Sen. Manchin represents more than twice as many people as you do.)

However, we would ask that you return to middle school and take a Civics class (as in government, not Honda cars), and don’t leave the classroom until you pass this time, because you clearly don’t understand how this whole thing works.

See, it matters not how many people one represents; it’s what those people want. Your constituents are probably all on welfare, and so the prospect of all the false promises of the Build Broke Better legislation sound good to them.

Sen. Manchin’s constituents, being hard-working folks, know better. They’ve been polled, and 75% of them oppose Build Broke Better. (Here’s some remedial math for you, sweetie: if he represents more than twice as many people as you do, and 75% of his constituents oppose Build Broke Better, that means that he represents more people who oppose Build Broke Better than the total number of people you represent.)

So you see, Sen. Manchin is doing what the people of West Virginia elected him to do: representing their interests. You claimed that he was guilty of “an egregious breach of the President’s trust.” Well, see, the President didn’t appoint him. He was elected by the people of his state. So it’s their trust that matters, not the President’s. This is one of the things you need to make sure you learn in that Civics class before you head back to D.C.

Another thing you need to learn is that, in a democratic Republic, you’re not always going to get your way. (Once you learn that, go back to Washington and explain it to your Squad Sisters – and Bernie, while you’re at it.) You say that the system needs to change, because one man shouldn’t be able to block a bill.

Well, that’s not what happened here.

Fifty Republican Senators firmly oppose Build Broke Better. And so does Joe Manchin, the lone voice of reason in the Democrat party (unless Kyrsten Sinema still opposes it; she’s kinda been lost in the shuffle since Sunday’s bombshell announcement by Manchin).

Here’s a little more remedial math – and I’ll go slow, because I know that I need to with you: there are 100 Senators. Fifty Republicans, plus one Joe Manchin, equals 51. Fifty-one is more than half of 100, so that’s a majority. And if a majority of the Senate opposes a piece of legislation, that piece of legislation fails, and “the system” is working exactly as the framers intended for it to work. One man didn’t block it; 51 people did.

I hope you do well in your Civics class. Try not to get too discouraged if it’s graded on the curve. Just do your best, and remember: those other kids may be smarter than you, but you’re a whole lot more entertaining.

Sincerely yours,

The Economic Curmudgeon