To my democratic and independent friends in west virginia (yes i am interfering -- i am not from there; but the senate affects us all!):

everyone's mad at joe manchin, and rightly so. he votes with the republicans 60 percent of the time. if you could have primaried him, you would have, but you couldn't, so he is the democratic candidate.

so you're thinking about not voting, or voting indie, which of course is meaningless even as a gesture.

think of this, though: manchin votes with repugs 60 percent of the time if you don't vote for him, his republican opponent will win and he will vote with the repugs 100 percent of the time.

think too of this: either way you get repug voting, but with manchin instead of his opponent we have the slimmest but very real chance of taking back the senate. if you think that's not important, or if you think "voting your conscience" (with the result that a criminal organization posing as a political party keeps power and trump continues unchecked) is more important, then you need to learn how government works, and look up the word "emergency" in the dictionary.

go vote, vote blue, hold your nose and vote for manchin primary him next time, but let's take back the senate and get at least 40 percent good votes in (and if we take back the senate, there will be better things to vote on!) and... hey if you're not in west virginia, you vote too! you vote blue too! and if you have donnelly or heitkamp or someone less than perfect to vote for, keep their seats blue and let's take back the damned senate! yes it's THAT important!

g