With the August 28 “Special” Democratic Primary fast approaching, it is appropriate, as a service to voters, to conduct a head-to-head comparison between the two main opponents, Joe Manchin and Ken Hechler. The following represents that attempt:
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1.Used Car Salesman Good Looks
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2.Actual experience in Washington
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4.Trans-generational Wisdom
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5.Fawning obsequiousness to Big Coal
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6.Unimpeachable commitment to Human Rights
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9.Motorcycling Experience
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10.Tremendous accomplishments in Congress on behalf of working West Virginia families
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11.Ability to saddle WV with Earl Ray Tomblin as Governor
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12.Saving the lives of mining families
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13.Likely to vote in U.S. Senate more like a Republican than a Democrat
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14.Unimpeachable commitment to Justice
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15.Shares views similar to those of Kentucky GOP Senate nominee and Social Security despiser Rand Paul
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16.Courage of convictions
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17.Will make sure planet continues to get hotter,and Hotter and HOTTER and West Virginia gets flatter, and Flatter and FLATTER
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Advantage: Manchin
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18.Shares views in-line with a majority of West Virginia voters
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19.Will make sure WV waters become more poisonous and West Virginians keep getting sicker.
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Advantage: Manchin
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20.Eminently qualified to sit in the U.S. Senate (a body named from the Latin root word meaning “old men”)
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21.Privatized WV Workers Comp; likely to think the same way about Social Security
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Advantage: Manchin
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22.Less likely to be indicted during term in Senate
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Executive Summary
As you can see, the head-to-head comparison is almost dead-even. Only with a closer examination of the metrics may we see what the data genuinely discloses. While Joe Manchin clearly has it all over Mr. Hechler in the things that really matter in American politics, things like hair, yachting and those used car salesman good looks, we really cannot ignore the fact that Mr. Hechler has what the old-timers liked to call “substance.”
Consider the candidates’ commitments to social justice. While it’s true that Joe Manchin has had opportunities to actually do social justice, he really hasn’t shown much interest. Why else, when tens of thousands of people around the world begged for a new Marsh Fork Elementary School, did he and his former staffer (and recently appointed senatorial seat-warmer), Carte Goodwin, actively oppose it? Why did Joe have to wait until “outsiders” came in to finally get on the right side of justice and history? On the other hand, as he noted at the time, when many members of Congress jetted away to Cape Kennedy for some NASA event, then-Congressman Hechler chose instead to risk arrest, beatings and even death to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Selma. To me, it’s clear that Mr. Hechler’s contribution to the betterment of our nation as a whole far outpaces Mr. Manchin’s tepid attempts at what he likes to call “balance.”
It is impossible to disagree that Mr. Manchin surely owns the field when it comes to courting the money. How many politicians do you know who can hoodwink Labor into thinking he’s for working folks at the same time he’s blithely taking fistfuls of corporate cash from folks who loathe people who earn by the sweat of their brow? Ken Hechler couldn’t do that in a million years, and never even tried. He stood with working people, literally making possible entire next generations of mining families with his advocacy for mine safety and health legislation. His part in the struggle for Black Lung benefits, alone, foreclosed any of the kind of love Joe Manchin gets from Corporate America.
If you work for A.T. Massey or any of the other non-union coal giants, I won’t be surprised when you vote for Joe Manchin, although Don Blankenship would far prefer you vote in the GOP Primary, what with its slate of “free-market” (read: anarchist) luminaries. Frankly, to Mr. Manchin’s dubious credit, you really can’t tell the difference between him and a Republican, so I understand the confusion. By comparison, Mr. Hechler is likely thought, for this day and age, quixotic for his dedication to the Democratic Party principles that made this country great. Then again, what would you expect from a man who was on a first-name basis with an American Hero like Harry S. Truman?
One of the great successes of the modern Republican Party lies in its ability to have convinced a great number of Americans that Social Security is either dead or dying, even though the facts don’t support the conclusion. If you’re one of those folks who believe that piece of shiny, sparkly misinformation, it will not shock me in the least when you vote for Joe Manchin on August 28. After all, given the fact that Joe Manchin dismantled West Virginia’s government-run Workers Comp system and replaced it with a lumbering, profit-driven Frankenstein’s Monster, privatized version, you won’t be surprised when Joe Manchin starts mumbling about the need to find “balance” in privatizing Social Security. What you’ll get from Mr. Hechler, however, are the facts: to paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of Social Security’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. It is, at present, with absolutely nothing done to augment it, wholly, fully, completely funded through 2037. Mr. Hechler will act and vote accordingly.
Polling data has indicated that a majority of West Virginians oppose the practice of Mountaintop Removal coal extraction. The people who make money doing it, however, are not a part of that majority, and they can be expected to vote en masse for Mr. Manchin, since he’s been consistent in his ongoing struggle to seek “balance” between his need to curry favor with the coal industry and the will of the people of West Virginia to end Mountaintop Removal. Even though Mountaintop Removal coal accounts for less than five percent of the less than 45% of America’s electricity provided by coal generally, Mr. Manchin has continued, day after day in his dogged, determined, lonely quest to find that ”balance” between what’s good for him and what’s good for the people of the State of West Virginia. He is a tireless seeker, Mr. Manchin.
Mr. Hechler, on the other hand, is just tireless, and refuses to hold Mr. Manchin’s youth against him. Mr. Hechler has shown that tirelessness (not to mention courage) in his willingness to be beaten by thugs on a march to commemorate the Battle of Blair Mountain (which, interestingly, Joe Manchin helped de-list from the National Register of Historic Places and, he hopes, from West Virginians’ collective consciousness, as well), not to mention being arrested in his effort to stand up for little children being poisoned by a coal prep plant next to an elementary school. Come to think of it, where was Joe Manchin that day in June 2009 when Ken Hechler was standing up for little children? Probably out hunting that elusive “balance.” I hear it likes to nest with snipes.
Not to be outdone in Civil Disobedience, however, Mr. Manchin is on yet another quest. If elected to fill Robert C. Byrd’s unexpired term, we may well see him cross that Finish Line in the next two years. Mr. Manchin will not allow Mr. Hechler to outshine him in the Getting Arrested Department. We may yet see the fruits of Mr. Manchin’s labors if he is, in fact, shown doing the now-all-too-familiar “perp walk” into the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse in Charleston (Irony!) following the Federal Grand Jury Investigation of his administration that is presently under way. Bravo, Joe! We all admire initiative in such a balanced man!
So it is that we see a comparison much closer than I’m sure Mr. Hechler would prefer. Granted, compared to the half-century of public service Mr. Hechler has rendered to the people of both his nation and his state, Mr. Manchin’s resume must look a little, well, thin, and wanting in gravitas, but I’ve never known Mr. Hechler to take an election cycle for granted. More than anything, Mr. Hechler’s long experience in public service gives him a sense of perspective that no amount of that elusive balance can surmount. He understands that this isn’t simply a statewide election; that, in fact, this election holds in the scales the fate of a nation. West Virginia literally powered the Industrial Revolution. Now, West Virginians will decide how we power the 21st century. Will we power it with compassion, courage and vision, the hallmarks of Mr. Hechler’s entire life, or will we power it with the heady-but-toxic fuel of lobbyist-delivered Corporate Money that flows like what Dr. King called “a mighty river” into Joe Manchin’s campaign, potentially influencing his senatorial votes on the issues of our day, not the least among them the pressing question of whether we will continue to cook ourselves right off this planet? What kind of “balance” is there between the frying pan and the fire?
For the answer, and if you prefer not to cook your own goose (and that of every other American) in either frying pan OR fire, go to the polls Saturday, August 28 and cast your ballot for Ken Hechler.
Bob Kincaid is a broadcaster and activist living in West Virginia. He was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 internet broadcasters in the country by the industry publication “Talkers” magazine. He can be heard nightly around the world from 6 to 9 p.m., Eastern Time at www.headonradionetwork.com
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