Krysten Sinema: Is She Just That Stupid, On The Take, Or What?
The Arizona Democrat doesn’t appear to be following any rational course typical of smart politicians
I can’t figure out Kyrsten Sinema, and I’m not the only one.
The Arizona Democrat who defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018 to become the state’s first Democratic senator in more than 20 years isn’t following any rational course typical of an elected politician.
And, make no mistake, for all of the things said about politicians, they are — by and large — a rational lot.
That goes for even those today in the House of Representatives who mouth the most conspiracy-minded nonsense.
That’s because they either sincerely believe such bunk, or they’re doing so because they are so wedded to their positions and their power that they repeat that garbage in order to get reelected.
So, seen from that lens, what they’re doing is rational, in a sense.
Not so for Arizona’s senior senator.
Since the dawn of the Biden administration, Sinema has become an extremely conservative member of the Democratic Senate caucus, refusing to yield on almost any Democratic priority or initiative.
She’s done so, so often that Sinema’s name now is invoked regularly side-by-side with that other conservative Democrat in the Senate, Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The difference is that Manchin — as frustrating as he often can be for other, more-mainstream Democrats — at least has an excuse.
West Virginia is overwhelmingly a “red state.”
Donald Trump thrashed Joe Biden in the Mountain State by about 30 points in 2020. Biden couldn’t carry a single county.
So, again, viewed through that prism, by being a public “fly in the ointment” to the Democrats, Manchin’s entirely rational in tending to his knitting at home.
Not so for Sinema, however.
Arizona is not the ruby-red state that West Virginia is, or even the Arizona itself was for much of the past couple of decades.
Not only did President Biden carry Arizona in the last election, it elected a second Democrat — former astronaut Mark Kelly — to serve alongside Sinema in the US Senate. Arizona is quickly becoming a true “purple” state.
And, while Kelly hasn’t exactly been a flaming progressive, neither has he taken the conservative hardline that’s become Sinema’s hallmark.
Rather than mollify voters back home, as Manchin is doing, Sinema’s frankly pissing off a lot of the Arizonans, whose votes she’ll need if she wants a second six-year term in 2024.
“Incredibly dismissive”
Take, for example, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), a grassroots group that led a coalition that knocked on 2.5 million doors in 2018 to get Sinema elected.
LUCHA’s leadership now says that they’ve been shut out by Sinema since she was elected.
Sinema “will not take meetings with us personally,” César Fierros, the group’s communications manager, told Salon, adding that meetings with her team have been “incredibly dismissive" and even “combative.”
By contrast, he said the group has had an “open line of communication" with Mark Kelly.
And it’s not just limited to one interest group.
No, far from it.
Sinema’s antics have seen her tank her approval ratings back home.
A new poll shows that two-thirds of Arizona Democrats are to the point where they will support a primary challenge to defeat Sinema in four years unless she changes her tune and begins to support filibuster reform.
Filibuster reform is at the heart of any Democratic reform agenda, as Senate Democrats have a razor-slim 50-seat majority and Republicans can easily thwart most of their legislation with the filibuster.
Manchin has proven difficult on filibuster reform, but again, given the high Republican tilt of his state, at least he’s acting rationally.
This poll is the latest sign to indicate that that’s not at all the same for Kyrsten Sinema.
Moreover, even though her reelection isn’t for another four years, she’s already come under fire in the form of new political advertising by a progressive group called Just Democracy.
The ad slams Sinema for not having “the courage to do what’s right for Arizona!”
What is Sinema up to?
So what’s going on here?
Politicians don’t often go on political suicide missions just for the heck of it.
What is motivating Sinema to behave in way that not only is angering her home voter base, but now demonstrably is putting her political future in real jeopardy?
Could she be on the take?
What I mean is that: Is she trading her political office for some kind of financial reward — either now or deferred until she’s out of office.
To be sure, it’s a serious charge to make.
And digging into her campaign finance details doesn’t set off any immediate alarm bells.
So Sen. Sinema could very well be squeaky clean.
That would leave just one apparent alternative to explain her politically self-destructive behavior.
We started with the premise that most elected politicians are very rational people — certainly when it comes to their own self-preservation.
Perhaps she really is the odd exception to that rule. Maybe Kyrsten Sinema really is just that stupid.
