"Manchin is especially vulnerable to accusations of imperial remove. Photos that circulated online show him chatting over the rail of his houseboat in Washington with angry constituents, who had arrived by kayak."

Writes Evan Osnos in "West Virginians Ask Joe Manchin: Which Side Are You On? The senator’s blockade against programs that have helped his constituents escape poverty makes some question 'who matters to Joe'" (The New Yorker).

Is it "imperial" to live in a houseboat — a houseboat accessible by angry kayakers?

Eh. Everyone has to write a lot of sentences about Joe Manchin right now. It's tedious but you can find some gems in there.

The Manchins are machers; Joe’s grandfather ran Farmington’s grocery store and served, over the years, as its fire chief, constable, justice of the peace, and mayor. His father had a similar stature in local politics, while also expanding the family business from groceries into furniture and carpets....

Machers... I had to look it up. It's a Yiddish word, I learned, reading "What Makes a Macher" (Forward):

Someone who gets things done? A nerve center? A mediator? An oiler of wheels? Here are some other attempts to define macher, taken from various print and online Yiddish-English lexicons: “Macher — a broker, an agent; a shrewd man; a swindler.” “Macher —an influential person; a fixer.” “Macher — a person who makes things happen; a big shot.” “Macher — a person with access to authorities, a man with contacts.” “Macher — a mover and shaker.” “Macher — a wheeler-dealer.”

Most of these definitions fall short of putting their finger on what makes a macher a macher. He is indeed someone who gets things done, but so is any competent CEO. He may be a nerve center, but a switchboard operator is, too. Mediators come in all varieties, of which a macher is only one. Oilers or greasers of wheels resort to bribery, which a macher does not necessarily do. Brokers, agents and swindlers may be machers, but machers needn’t be brokers, agents or swindlers. And while a successful macher is certainly influential, so is a successful author or intellectual. Machers make things happen? Theater directors and symphony conductors do, too. They’re big shots? Some are...

That leaves us with “fixer” and “wheeler-dealer.”... [T]he fixer is by definition engaged in activities that he would not want to be publicly known, he always operates behind the scenes. Machers, on the other hand, are often — although they don’t have to be — highly conspicuous.... “[W]heeler-dealer” suggests someone operating on many fronts and levels for his own benefit, whereas a macher may act on behalf of an organization or cause....

Both “wheeler-dealer” and macher may have negative undertones, but while most people would agree that the world could do nicely without wheeler-dealers, there is a social necessity for at least some kinds of machers. The Yiddish verb makhn means both “to make” and “to do,” and when one Jews asks another, “Vos makhstu?” he is simply asking “What’s up?” or “What’s doing?” 

A makher is someone who, often with no official position or title, makes it his job to get other people to do things, without being too finicky about the means he employs. Sometimes he’s a force for the better, sometimes for the worse. There’s really no exact word for it in English.

Now, I know what "macher" means. It's probably a word you could stick on any politician. By the way, what is Manchin's ethnicity and religion? He's Italian on his father's side — Manchin was originally Mancini — and Czechoslovak on his mother's side. Religion: Catholic. Of course, it's fine to use Yiddish words to talk about non-Jewish public figures. In fact, it borders on anti-Semitic to use Yiddish words only when describing characters who are Jewish.

One more gem from the Evan Osnos piece:

Bit by bit, Manchin, like [J.D.] Vance, is losing the credibility of his connection to the very place at the heart of his identity....