Following the release of the latest inflation numbers, which showed June CPI at a whopping 9.1 percent, Sen. Joe Manchin quickly changed his tune on the renewed negotiations over Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. While Democrats were hoping for a slightly watered-down reconciliation bill that still included gobs of money for “climate” provisions, Manchin let it be known that he wouldn’t support a dime on such nonsense in the middle of an inflationary boom.

That sent the left into orbit, with activists and Democrat politicians alike accusing Manchin of ending humanity and making the planet unlivable.

Joe Manchin’s decision to kill off sweeping US climate legislation has been called “nothing short of a death sentence” for younger people and a livable climate on Earth, amid an outpouring of anger and despair from activists, scientists and even many of the US Senator’s Democratic colleagues…

…“Given the US’s role as the leading all-time carbon polluter, it is difficult to see global action on climate without US leadership,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University, who called Manchin “a modern-day villain, who drives a Maserati, lives on a yacht, courtesy of the coal industry, and is willing to see the world burn as long as it benefits his near-term investment portfolio”…

…Even some of Manchin’s party colleagues weighed in. Jared Huffman, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, called Manchin a “wrecking ball” and a “very corrupted, compromised man”.

Before we get to Manchin’s response, it’s worth pausing for a moment to understand how delusional and deranged these climate hysterics are. Climate change is a religion for these people. It’s a faceless, soulless god that they pledge absolute obedience to no matter how harmful or nonsensical their actions in service to it may be.

More people die every year of exposure to the cold than the heat. Even if one believes that human beings have total control over the climate and can lower global temperatures by moving to the impossible standard of “net-zero” carbon emissions, not doing so does not equate to the actual end of humanity and a livable planet. That’s hyperbolic nonsense. The earth is not going to spontaneously combust (at least not for a few more billion years), and human beings are incredibly good at adapting to changing climate conditions.

Ask yourself what’s more possible if the goal is to save lives? Getting all of humanity, including dictators and despots, to agree to cut carbon emissions to net-zero, somehow lowering global temperatures? Or buying more air conditioners in France for old people? Again, even if you are all in on the climate change stuff being completely influenced by man, talking about adaptation with a smart, managed transition to things like nuclear fusion makes far more sense than pushing useless, ineffective green boondoggles meant to make the world’s elites richer.

Moving back to Manchin, he fired back at his critics, accusing them of not caring about the struggles American families are going through due to the current inflation.

Manchin contends he has "never" strung Dems along. "I'm worried about the person that can't feed their family. You can't basically put gas in their car to go to work and having a hard time paying utility bills .. so I'm sorry if they don't care about that. I do." pic.twitter.com/dZ0EagKF2d

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 19, 2022

Here’s what Manchin gets that other Democrats don’t. Hyperbolic proclamations of the end of the world are not an actual argument for objectively bad policy. Forcing green energy, whatever that even means these days, down the throats of Americans while inflation is bankrupting people is not going to change the temperature of the planet. It’s only going to make global elites who own private jets and yachts feel better about themselves, and frankly, that’s not Manchin’s job. This idolatrous idea that human beings can just pass a piece of legislation and literally control the climate is completely absurd.

Manchin’s willingness to push back at this level, including accusing his own Democrat colleagues of not caring about people, portends more clashes in the future. Does that sound like a guy who is going to remain a Democrat after November’s election? I’m not making any predictions, but Manchin seems closer to leaving his party than he ever has been. After all, how much longer can he abide by his supposed friends trashing him as the destroyer of humanity?