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The Book of the Week is “Dead Center, In Defense of Common Sense” by Joe Manchin, published in 2025.
Born in 1947, Manchin grew up in West Virginia. He was elected governor of West Virginia in 2004. In January 2005, he privatized the state’s workers compensation system, because the system was an extreme financial burden to the state budget.
At that, the unions feared they would lose their benefits. The plaintiffs’ lawyers got mad as hell because the system had been a gravy train for them. Some workers did have legitimate claims because West Virginia’s economy is based on drilling for and mining of natural resources and the major resource– coal– is an extremely dangerous business.
Manchin levied a tax on coal to pay down West Virginia’s crushing debt load. He was a straight shooter. He wrote that he tried to add other kinds of revenue-generators such as tourism, infrastructure and small businesses, to the state’s economy.
Manchin came around to agreeing that term-limits for elected officials, including Congress members, would be good for the country. A limit of two terms would force a public servant to take quick actions in their first term to get reelected, and then, if they want a legacy, they’ll have to continue to try to help their constituents.
If, however, as seems to be the case with career politicians– their motives for getting elected to office are simply power-hunger and greed. If they’re limited to two terms, they’ll accelerate their patronage piggishness and profiteering in their first term, and get complacent in their second term (if they get one) because they know they’ll be long gone when it hits the fan.
Moreover, “It is an iron law of politics: Stopping stuff is always more popular than compromising to get things done.” Read the book to learn what Manchin actually got done; as someone who truly cared about his constituents and voted pursuant to his conscience, he was willing to compromise.