Hand-Written Letter to Senator Manchin

Dear Mr. Senator Manchin,

First let me state that I am a Democrat, and I have donated nominal amounts of money to the Demcratic Party, of which you, I would say now, are merely a nominal member.

You and I are roughly the same age. But whereas you have apparently grown up from boyhood in Virginia, as did William Styron (The Confessions of Nat Turner, author of), I have grown up in the notorious (historically speaking) state of Washington. Virginia was one of the original colonies to first form the incipient political amalgamation which would later be known as the United States. The Territory of Washington was one of the last states to be admitted into the Union. And although Montana is not considered a portion of the Pacific Northwest, it certainly is a member of the Intermountain West.

Which is why I believe you should have a conversation with you colleague, Senator John Testor of Montana. You two may not have too much in common; however, apart from the very artificial life any politician would immerse themselves in once they reached the city limits of Washington D.C.

Now I find it curious that you actually live in a compartively large yacht, and have you yourself referred to this domicile as a “houseboat.” A slight amount of fibbing; and I will let it pass.

Senator Manchin, I can safely say that I’ve read much more in American political philosophy than you would ever dream of doing. And, since I’m a private citizen whose little house in Spokane is completely paid for, I have zero qualms about examining the conduct of not only politicians winding their way through the halls of Congress, through the phalanx of journalists with their smartphones in hand, quite ready to record every single word you say and every facial tick you make, but I even scrutinize Supreme Court justices and their decisions — merely as one of my varied hobbies.

Now, I don’t know what drives a man or a woman into politics. One would suppose the underlying motivations involved are all, in some fashion, interconnected. . . .

Right now, sir, you stand as a rock-hard impediment to the President’s agenda. The President of the United States!

Do you actually believe that your retrograde vision of what America should become in the near future is superior to that of President Biden’s?

If you do, then, my sad and befuddled senator, you will need all the flippin help you can get from your coal-mining companies and good ol’ boys who still dream among themselves that the United States coal industry is sacrosanct and must not and cannot be impacted by any law whatsoever that would somehow decimate the industry economically. But you’re safe, Joe; no need to wipe your brow; for, as some of us know, coal will always be needed to produce not heat, nor electricity, but steel. Good, hard, inflexible (or nearly) steel.

Happy Days,

Donald Gardner Stacy