by Allan Stevo

Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin helped lead the impeachment movement against Trump. Accordingly, his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, a swamp-dweller, will not be getting a promotion that former Vice President Joe Biden recommended her for at the Federal Reserve Bank. A few other political issues also caused strife, but the decision came down to one man and it was not Biden.

The reason she will not get a promotion?

Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia refused to support her nomination.

Manchin watched West Virginia switch to heavily Republican during his time in office. Manchin is now one of a handful of Democrat office holders in heavily Republican West Virginia, and the only Democrat federal office holder from that state out of the delegation of five.

To illustrate that further, Cook lists West Virginia’s three congressional district as R+22, R+20, and R+27. This is to say, the state is presently very pro-Republican. Some may bemoan that Manchin is in a difficult situation to be a Democrat.

I discourage such whining. It hides reality.

The truth is, Manchin is in a wonderful situation, as are the voters of West Virginia.

That is because, in response to a difficult situation, Manchin has chosen to rise to the occasion.

Manchin has become influential over the past year of the regime, like Republican Senator Rand Paul was during the Trump Administration. Rand Paul, who came to office in the midst of the Tea Party movement, was understood to not be a reliable party line voter, but to be principled and obstinate. Many Senators want to appear independent. Rand Paul really is independent.

Because Rand Paul behaves so independently and at the same time has some political clout, Trump was able to use Paul as the scapegoat to a horrible neo-con who sought to be Secretary of State.

John Bolton, in the book The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, recounts a strategy that legitimate President Trump used against him to leverage the well known, public, concerns of Rand Paul.

Bolton wanted to be Secretary of State in 2018 and asked Trump for the position. Trump allegedly told Bolton, “I’d love to have you over there,” if it wasn’t for that “son of a b**** Rand Paul.”

How awful.

How crass!

He said that about Rand Paul!?

Listen to me. You want to be called a son of a b****. You want to be the guy principled enough in the room that others can blame you for their decision. You want to be the guy loud enough in the room that no one can ignore you. You want to be the guy who is clear enough on his views that no one can mistake you.

That’s what you want out of normal life, especially in this era of decay, and you really want that when dealing with politicians. They are not your friends. You are not someone for them to dismissively pat on the head. A politician is a person who has agreed to serve a term, voluntarily making themselves into a cog in a machine. It does not matter what a politician thinks of you as a person. It matters only that you have the ability to influence him.

Trump did not begin any new wars during his time in office, he generally increased peace globally, though he did periodically take extraterritorial military intervention.

I suspect this was not the only time that Trump used Rand Paul as an excuse to rebuff the neo-cons who surrounded him. This allowed Trump to look like a good guy and get his way while painting Rand Paul as the bad guy.

Great negotiation technique.

And why wouldn’t Trump do that? Trump holds a relatively similar, rational, America First litmus test on foreign intervention that Rand Paul does, that Ron Paul before him did, and that “Mr. Republican” Robert A. Taft was a notable torch-bearer for previously. DC has a forever war uniparty. Having any rational litmus on war leaves one outnumbered and in need of clever strategies to level that playing field.

If you are an outnumbered holder of a view, sometimes not cooperating is a great way to hold that view and expand influence.

In that regard, Rand Paul walked a path that Manchin now walks and that each of us can learn from.

If the Senate is closely split, as it today is, and a Senator is not afraid to make it clear that he cannot be counted on as a reliable party line vote, he gains a lot of influence.

Rand Paul played that game, and Joe Manchin is playing that game. Manchin has killed nominations and bills — even Biden’s signature American great reset legislation, colloquially called “Build Back Better.” Manchin, among uniparty politicians and uniparty media figures, is constantly talked about as the wet blanket, the stick in the mud, the killjoy who will kill all the swampy fun.

In his lack of cooperation, Manchin has grown in influence, like Rand Paul during Trump. Some nonsense will not even be presented in either houses of Congress because it is recognized that Manchin will not play nice.

Was Rand Paul influential during the First Trump Administration because Trump really agreed with him? Maybe.

Was Paul influential because he would make a big fuss if he did not have a seat at the table? Yes, definitely.

Was Paul influential because he would make a big fuss if his views were not honored by the West Wing in their policy considerations? Definitely.

In your own life, how can you be as uncooperative with evil as possible?

I would, of course, like you to build things and not just oppose things. I want you to prosper in what you build. Family, work, community, and church are places where many build things. Building has to be a focus in life. But sometimes tearing things down or threatening to stall progress is where one can have outsized influence.

Your ability to say “No!” may be your greatest power.

This is especially true when you are in a situation in which you are part of the minority. Your lack of cooperation can be far more easy to leverage than being cooperative and gently trying to sway opinion.

So I ask again — In your own life, how can you be as uncooperative with evil as possible?

I do not write about the mask only because it is an evil, deceptive lie.

I write about it because it is good practice to oppose such nonsense.

It is an easy way to stand against evil.

Not wearing a mask is a series of baby steps.

Baby steps are exactly what many need.

After 9/11, government told many people “Go to bed children, we have this under control.” Many people have stayed in bed since 9/11. They have looked away and pretended that all was well. When they were bored, they watched Netflix. When they saw something they did not like in the world, they turned up the volume on their Netflix or rolled over and went back to sleep.

They wanted life to be as comfortable as possible, as comfortable as a pillow-filled bed of down and satin.

Covid-19 was the result of Americans spending 20 years in bed. Stay in bed, and next year promises to be worse.

Sometimes baby steps are needed when you wake up.

One baby step is to get the mask off you, off your family, off the people at businesses that you patronize.

Ultimately, there needs to be accountability for the crimes of 2020 and beyond. There must be investigations, trials, prison time, and executions.

You can not be masked just to get through the door. You can not be masked just to get through the day. You can not be masked just to make someone happy. You can not be masked just to get on the plane. You can not be masked just to see grandma. You need to do better.

Say yes to the mask, and you will say yes to much worse. Say “No!” to the mask while continuing to live a normal life, and you will have all the tools you need to resist much worse while continuing to live a normal life.

In fact, as someone you never wears a mask and who lives in left coast lockdown land, I think you do not just have to live a normal life maskless, I know for a fact that you can live an even better life than anyone else while maskless. You can live better maskless and be treated better. You can live the life of a VIP.

The mask is a baby step toward asserting yourself.

If you are still wearing a mask, it is time to stop. If you are done wearing a mask and effortlessly living life like a VIP, it is time to assert yourself even further and to begin demanding accountability in the world around you.

You have a super power that needs your attention.

Not cooperating is one of the most influential things you can do.