The Democratic Party, and the country as a whole, are in a unique dilemma. Democrats, liberals, and even the center seem to have finally woken up to just how dangerously extreme the modern GOP is, with Republicans openly working around the country to suppress the vote and, if that fails, ensure they can overturn the result if it doesn’t go their way.

Democrats could theoretically head this off with the voting rights bills they have vowed to pass. But to do so, they’d have to first abolish or drastically reform the Senate filibuster, and that idea is opposed by two conservative senators: Kyrsten Sinema and, especially, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.

Reportedly, President Joe Biden, who was sold to the electorate as the experienced insider and consummate dealmaker who could make Washington finally work, has no plan to induce Manchin to switch. In fact, despite pledging to “fight like heck with every tool at my disposal” to get the voting rights bill passed, Biden has instructed civil rights groups not to pressure Manchin in private meetings. This is because, according to the Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein, and in line with the suspicions of frustrated voting rights groups, the White House doesn’t see that legislation as a priority. Rather, a senior official told Brownstein, they see the most viable path to defeating the GOP’s antidemocratic plans as passing Biden’s agenda in order to “win elections in 2022, so we keep control of the House and Senate.”