Understood.
We also can't exactly say that Trump would never stoop so low.
Manchin doesn't necessarily want to restore preclearance. He wants it to apply to all 50 states and territories.
https://www.vox.com/22434054/joe-man...ibuster-senate
Edward-Issac Dovore, writer of a new book behind the scenes of the 2020 campaign, does agree with you that there are other Democratic Senators who agree with Manchin & Sinema.
Manchin is the one who wrote the op-Ed, but he’s not the only Democrat skeptical of all of what’s in the For the People Act — as with eliminating the filibuster or the Tanden nomination, there are a bunch of Democrats more than happy to have him take the heat for them.
That doesn’t mean Manchin isn’t the crux of these decisions—if he took the opposite positions, it would pressure his colleagues to follow suit. But he has a bunch of colleagues who love that he keeps the pressure off them. And he loves being the contrarian for back home politics.