President Joe Biden’s most recent spending bill is the greatest investment for the American people since former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, and Democrats of all stripes have lined up to support the trajectory-altering legislation.
Given the slim Democratic majority, even just one dissenting senator is capable of derailing this historic investment for the American people. That senator is Joe Manchin, the senior senator from West Virginia. 
You would think by Manchin’s position against a bill that cuts taxes on the poor and middle class, protects workers from union-busting and lowers healthcare costs, that West Virginia features among the most prosperous states in the Union, and therefore has no need for such social benefits.
West Virginia is in fact not such a state. It is one of the poorest in the union, with a median per capita income of just over $25,000 according to the Census Bureau.
You would be correct in noting, however, that Manchin is one of the most prosperous senators in the U.S. With a net worth of over $8 million and a quarter of a million dollar yacht, he is the among the 20 richest to hold a seat in the Senate.
Manchin’s constituents are desperately in need of help, help that was on the way until their senator decided to stonewall progress for the sake of the filibuster. Democrats were forced to use the uncommon reconciliation process for their spending bill after Manchin refused to endorse weakening the archaic filibuster rule, which would have allowed Democrats to push through legislation using ordinary legislative procedure. 
Manchin would rather protect the filibuster than the livelihoods of his own constituents.
The United States Senate is often called the “greatest deliberative body in the world,” yet the gridlock caused by the filibuster has tarnished that reputation in recent years. Manchin is among the most prominent architects of the destruction of the ideals of the Senate.
He is single-handedly delaying much-needed relief to the American public, all because of a rosy, misguided vision of his Republican colleagues. He seems to be believe that if Democrats like him protect the filibuster, then Republicans will in turn protect it when they are in power.
There is one problem with that argument—it is complete bogus and unthinkably naïve. Anyone who has been watching Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over the years knows that at the first opportunity, he will destroy the filibuster in the name of pushing Republican legislation over the line. Democrats will be shut out of the process, so there is no reason not to shut Republicans out of this current process.
Manchin’s current political grandstanding is not much more than that—grandstanding. He seems to crave the attention and fame that come with holding up aid for the most vulnerable American citizens. Many of those citizens are his own constituents, as West Virginia is slated to be one of the states that benefits most from the reconciliation package currently in consideration by the Senate.
Manchin needs to deflate his ego and work to further the interests of the American people, not his own. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t deserve to be a member of the United States Senate.
Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication junior from Baton Rouge.