Who, exactly, thought that using protests would successfully move Manchin? Because anyone who believed that lives in a political fantasy land.

People have a right to protest. And part of Manchin’s job is listening to voters who disagree with him. But protests are supposed to be about achieving concrete goals. The progressives who thought that they could sway Manchin by constantly hectoring him in public weren’t achieving anything except making themselves feel good.

And they did hector him. In one of the more memorable stunts, protesters swarmed the houseboat, where Manchin lives while working in Washington, in kayaks. That wasn’t a one-off event. They did it for several days. And while the optics were somewhat amusing, it isn’t so funny when protesters swarm him and scream at him as he leaves the houseboat for work in the morning.