Joe Manchin doesn’t seem to understand bullies.

The West Virginia senator apparently doesn’t understand that they aren’t interested in a game of give and take. Their strategy is to take and take. Then take some more, without even so much as a thank you.

Joe Manchin is a victim of his own delusion. It’s an attractive delusion, to be sure, which is what makes it so dangerous.

He’s is living in a halcyon past that’s become a present of wishful thinking. Once upon a time, compromise was considered a good thing in Washington, D.C. It was how you got things done. But now, nothing gets done, because there’s no compromise.

Joe Manchin thinks the way to bring back compromise is by doing so unilaterally. But when compromise is a one-way street and the other side insists on going the wrong direction, the result is a game of chicken, which is basically what you have in Washington right now. Someone has to blink first, and every time, it’s guess who?

That’s right: Joe Manchin.

When you keep giving and giving and giving, it should become apparent at some point that the other side is only interested in taking.

Taking advantage.

Willful blindness?

But Manchin either doesn’t see this or doesn’t want to. He should have seen it when Republicans continued to support Donald Trump after his failed insurrection. He should have seen it when they torpedoed the Jan. 6 commission after reaching a bipartisan deal to form one — a deal in which the Democrats, did most of the compromising.

He’s stood by the concept of the filibuster, even though Republicans use it as nothing more than a tool to block every initiative any Democrat proposes, regardless of what it is.

Now he’s decided to essentially kill a voting rights bill because he believes it’s “not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage.”

Excuse me? That’s what the Republicans have been doing.

Manchin asks, “Do we really want to live in an America where one party can dictate and demand everything and anything it wants, whenever it wants?”

The answer, of course, is no. But it’s a straw man argument.

In fact, “anything it wants” is exactly what Manchin is delivering to one party — and not the one he claims to be affiliated with — because Joe Manchin insists on compromising with a group that refuses to compromise.

Consider: The Republican leader in the Senate hasn’t just hinted, he’s outright said that his entire focus is to block Joe Biden’s agenda. Not to put forth one of his own. Just to block. To obstruct. To undermine. That’s literally all the Republican Party stands for these days: Blocking the Democrats. So, if Joe Manchin helps him do that, he’s doing precisely what he says he’s against: “He’s allowing one party to do everything and anything it wants, whenever it wants.” And not his own party, but the other one!

Does Manchin really believe he can wave his magic wand labeled “compromise” and everything will suddenly be all better?

Apparently not. He says it will be “frustrating and slow.”

He’s half-right. Frustrating, yes. Slow? More like bogged down in quicksand: This rig ain’t goin’ anywhere, Joe, because that’s what the Republicans want. And you’re helping them achieve it.

Republicans across the country are limiting voting rights because they know they can’t win fair and square. They’re stopping drive-through voting, curtailing mail-in voting, and cutting back on how long polling places can stay open. And Joe Manchin won’t do a damn thing to stop them. He may not be a bully or a mindless follower, but he’s an enabler, which results in exactly the same thing.

Appeasement much?

You don’t stop bullies through appeasement. That’s been tried. Ask Neville Chamberlain how it turned out. Don’t know who that is? Google him.

There’s a time to compromise: When the other side is willing to come to the table. Then, it’s admirable. Otherwise, it’s self-defeating. But Manchin appears clueless about the fact that compromise doesn’t always work.

You don’t just sit back in your lifeboat when the other side is drilling holes in it. Most likely, you’ll try to stop them; at the very least you start bailing water like your life depends on it (because it does). Either way, you don’t compromise. You don’t say, “All right, old chap, why don’t you just punch four holes in the hull instead of eight, and we’ll call it even.”

No. You don’t compromise when people are trying to take your rights away. That’s when you fight.

Joe Manchin is fighting, all right. But he’s fighting the people on his own team who want to stop the other guys from punching holes in the hull of democracy. That’s not admirable, it’s despicable.

Either Joe Manchin is a fool, or he just wants to get re-elected.

Probably both.

Stephen H. Provost is the author of a three-book series on the Trump presidency, Trumpism on Trial, available on Amazon.