Today, the United States Senate staged a Kabuki vote for the benefit of one senator. It will probably come as no surprise to hear that Senator Joe Manchin was the reason for this doomed attempt to pass new voting rights legislation. This is, in fact, the second such Kabuki vote this year on the subject, the only difference being this time around the Senate voted on the compromise plan Manchin himself had drafted. And, just like before, it failed along strict party lines. The entire exercise was designed to prove to Manchin that this was exactly what was going to happen.

Manchin is downright delusional in his belief that voting rights legislation of any kind will garner a single Republican vote in this Congress. Theoretically, according to Manchin's delusion, he was supposed to water down the original Democratic bill and add in a few Republican ideas, all in order to garner Republican support. He would have needed ten of them for this effort to succeed. In the end, he got precisely zero of them -- which is exactly what everyone not named "Joe Manchin" had predicted would happen all along.

Manchin was given all summer to round up all this mythical bipartisan support for his bill. Which means the entire summer was flat-out wasted chasing an impossibility. Again, everyone knew what the outcome of this pointless exercise was going to be, except Joe Manchin. Now it has been proven to him, once again. But he will in all likelihood remain trapped in his delusion and refuse to do the one thing that could break this logjam -- reform the filibuster rules to allow voting rights legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority.

Manchin supports the current filibuster rules, it (ironically) bears pointing out, in supposed defense of bipartisanship. He's got some real twisted-pretzel logic for why this is so, and the question now is whether he will face the reality that bipartisan voting rights reform is just not going to happen without filibuster reform, period.

The Republican Party has (at the insistence of their own delusional de facto leader) made their own version of "election reform" the centerpiece of their party's platform for the near future. Except that their version is all about making it harder to vote, not easier. The entire party is heavily invested in the Big Lie that the 2020 election was somehow "stolen" from them, all evidence to the contrary (and it is indeed all of the evidence). It would be a political impossibility for them to change course at this point and support voting rights legislation which has essentially been designed to undo all their voter-suppression efforts at the state level. Why would they have bothered to pass all those new state laws if Senate Republicans were just going to toss them out? That wouldn't make much sense.

This is why Manchin's quest for bipartisanship on this issue is nothing short of delusional. He is refusing to accept the reality of the situation, plain and simple. That's what today's vote was designed to prove to him, once and for all. No word yet on whether it changed his mind one iota or not, though. And "not" is probably the safe bet, there.

Joe Manchin has -- singlehandedly -- wasted so much time proving his delusion was, in fact, delusional that we have probably already lost the chance to affect the 2022 elections, at least to the degree that was initially proposed. Back at the start of the year, the once-in-a-decade redistricting process hadn't even begun. It is now complete in several states, and well on its way to being complete in many others. The new district lines are already being drawn, so any new federal law would almost certainly leave them where they are for another ten long years. This is a tragic missed opportunity, and it can all be laid at the feet of Manchin. Democrats may lose control of the House of Representatives for a decade, all due to Manchin's waffling and delays.

Some of the reforms -- the ones dealing with Election Day itself -- could likely still be implemented, which would at least be something. But that window won't be open forever, either. Primary season is going to begin early next year, and it's tough to change election laws once the entire process has gotten underway.

What needs to happen now is for Chuck Schumer to tell Manchin that the time for delay is over, and that he'll be bringing up a rule change to expand the loophole for bills that cannot be filibustered to include basic constitutional rights such as voting rights. Manchin and the rest of the Democrats will have to go on the record as being either for this change or against it. And if they vote against it, they will do so knowing it will kill any chance for voting reform for the rest of the current Congress. No new rules will be in place for the 2022 midterms, and if Republicans regain control of either chamber, then no voting rights reforms will pass until after the 2024 presidential election, either.

This has been what obviously needed to happen all along. Manchin demanded enough time to convince ten Republicans to vote for his bill, and he failed miserably at this delusional task. There is now no other possible way forward than changing the filibuster rules. Today's vote proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Joe Manchin now has a decision to make. Will voting rights legislation pass or won't it? Will he allow his own bill to die, or will he be the one to rescue it from oblivion? This is not some budgetary issue that Manchin can split ideological hairs on -- this is a bill he wrote. He has to assumably be in favor of passing it, in other words.

But there's only one way left to do that. The time for stalling is over. The time for chasing bipartisan moonbeams and wild geese has come to an end. Either the bill passes or it doesn't. It's now up to Manchin to decide which he wants to see happen. His delusional farce has run its course, and now the hard decision that was there all along will have to be made.

In other words, it's time to put up or shut up, Joe.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant