Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has become known along with Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema as the opposition inside the Democratic Party to progressive politics. Most critics generously describe him as “centrist,” but in truth, he is more like a Republican than anything else.

His income from energy companies that rely on fossil fuels is only the beginning of his conflict of interest within Democratic politics.

On CNN’s New Day, Manchin eschewed the labels “progressive” and even “liberal” when describing the current state of politics in America. This, despite the fact that more than 60 percent of Americans favor universal health care, and more than 80 percent — including nearly 70 percent of Republicans — think that economic inequality is a big problem in this country.

In fact, a report from The American Prospect from as far back as 2017 already showed the political leanings before the election of Donald Trump, and the difference between what Manchin believes and what America believes couldn’t be more stark:

• 60 percent think corporations make “too much profit”
• 84 percent believe money has too much influence in politics
• 67 percent want to lift the Social Security cap that keeps high-income people from paying SS tax on all of their income
• 63 percent support making 4-year public colleges and universities tuition-free

That hasn’t stopped centrist politicians like Manchin from projecting their own beliefs onto the rest of the country, however. Admonishing his own party for going “too far left,” Manchin declared that:

This is not a center-left or a left country, we are a center — if anything, a little center-right — country, and this means that’s being shown. And we ought to be able to recognize that.

And all my friends on the left are progressives, liberals, whatever, I said I’m not, I always say that I’m a responsible West Virginia Democrat. And I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate. I think most people in the middle feel that way. But I also empathize with the people on the far-left and the far-right. That’s aspirational. Come together, realize what can and can’t be done. Don’t force something that is not going to happen to make it, to make people believe it will.

The problem isn’t that America can’t achieve social and economic equality, Joe. It’s that we have people even within the party that’s supposed to represent those values continuing to insist that it “is not going to happen.”

It won’t with that attitude.

Watch:

"I believe in President Biden," @Sen_JoeManchin says. "We just have to work together. We can't go too far left. This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center, if anything, center-right country."

"I'm fiscally responsible and socially compassionate," he adds. pic.twitter.com/zXVZkqin8k

— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) November 4, 2021

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