Joe Manchin is a self-centered, self-righteous asshole. He made it official this morning in an unofficial opinion piece he’d never vote for the ‘For The People Act‘ — maybe the only sole/soul survivor in the fight to contain the Republican-led tsunami-like voter supprssion laws cascading across the country — and the shitheel did it with an ignorant arrogance usually found only within the MAGA crowd.

Manchin is a Democrat in name only:

Well, this cleared nothing up for me https://t.co/uayhoSK2nt

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 6, 2021

Major concern right now is all those GQP-based voting suppression laws/bills in states and the sanctimonious excuse from them these enactments are attempts to curb voter fraud — bullshit — and in reality massively-effects minorities by all kinds of shit, while working to stamp-out vote-by-mail, which is a fear for Republicans.
As of early April, 14 states have already passed 23 laws that placed new restrictions on voting, while another 60 restrictive bills are moving through legislatures in 18 states — only way in some cases to fight this shit occurred last week in Texas. Yet that action is most-likely just temporary.
Overall, the situation is historic: ‘“We are seeing a virtually unprecedented effort to suppress Americans’ right to vote in states across the country, of the sort that we haven’t really seen since the Jim Crow era,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, who leads the Brennan Center’s state voting laws program.‘

Although some Democrats have voiced concerns about the ‘For The Peple Act’ — termed HR 1 in the House, where it passed in early March, and S 1 in the Senate, where it currently sticks — mostly non-serious items like it carries some poorly written and confusing requirements, maybe difficult or even impossible to implement, but mostly consisted of conceptual criticisms, which wouldn’t hamper the power of the Act.
Synopsis of the bill (via Vox):

The nearly 800-page For the People Act does do a whole lot of things — far too many to list here — but it’s mostly oriented around trying to help solve five somewhat distinct problems that Democrats and “good government” reformers have long worried about: (1) voting accessibility, (2) gerrymandering of the US House of Representatives, (3) the influence of big and dark money on elections, (4) election security, and (5) ethics in the federal government.

Just about covers it in a nutshell. How could anyone in his near-right mind would oppose this aspiration?

You-know-who: Basics supporting his shit — Manchin’s op/ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail earlier today:

Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act.
This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy?
Are these same senators, whom many in my party applauded for their courage, now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect?

The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen.

With that in mind, some Democrats have again proposed eliminating the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass the For the People Act with only Democratic support.
They’ve attempted to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past.
…
Of course, some in my party have argued that now is the time to discard such bipartisan voting reforms and embrace election reforms and policies solely supported by one party.
Respectfully, I do not agree.

I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act.
Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.
For as long as I have the privilege of being your U.S. senator, I will fight to represent the people of West Virginia, to seek bipartisan compromise no matter how difficult and to develop the political bonds that end divisions and help unite the country we love.

Horrifying bullshit. Manchin is dull to reality as is the most-deep-dwelling MAGA hatters — Republicans aren’t never, ever going to work with Democrats on even, truthful terms in a decent way, and as was stated, their labor is 100-percent pitted against Joe Biden’s agenda, and nothing for the people of even of those who actually-idiotically elected them.
Why can’t Manchin even react accordingly to slips-of-a-lying tongue like this:

Texas AG Ken Paxton said yesterday that if he hadn’t been successful with lawsuits to block mail-in ballots, Trump definitely would have lost the election in Texas. pic.twitter.com/2dVDiEAY1L

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) June 5, 2021

You have to keep in mind, Manchin’s always been an asshole-GOP-bootlicker — this from Politico in April 2014:

Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday strongly defended the Koch brothers from attacks by fellow Democrats, saying the wealthy and politically active businessmen are taxpaying Americans who are creating jobs.

“People want jobs. You don’t beat up people. I mean, I don’t agree with their politics or philosophically, but, you know, they’re Americans, they’re doing— paying their taxes,” Manchin said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

“They’re not breaking the law. They’re providing jobs,” he added.

Fuck! The Kochs are terrible, horrible human beings.
Again, Pinball nails the moment:

Hope, however, does spring eternal, or some-such shit…