From: Paul and Bill from Ringside at the Reckoning <ringsideatthereckoning@substack.com>
To: add1dda@aol.com
Sent: Sat, Dec 10, 2022 11:32 pm
Subject: Sinema's switch speaks volumes about the Democrats
"Sinema shakes up the Senate." That's the headline (paper edition) to the Washington Post's lead story today. Will Kyrsten Sinema's decision to switch from Democrat to independent really shake up the Senate? I doubt it. Not in the next two years, anyway. But Sinema's defection should shake up the standard line one reads nowadays in mainstream media organs like the Washington Post. That line holds that Donald Trump has made it difficult, if not impossible, to be both an electable Republican and a principled, independent-minded person. It's true, I think, that refusing aggressively to espouse Trump's line that he won the 2020 election contributed to the defeat of some Republican hopefuls this year and caused others to stay out of races they could have won, absent the disapproval of Trump supporters in a primary. But what about the imperative that Democrats toe the party line? I haven't seen this mentioned by the mainstream media. Yet, Sinema's move from Democrat to independent suggests that it's difficult, if not impossible, to be both an electable Democrat and a principled, independent-minded person. Sinema says she left the Democrats because being a loyal soldier for that party doesn't reflect who she is. She put it this way:
Sinema might believe this and it might even be true. However, if being an independent reflects who she's always been, it's fair to ask why she waited until now to declare herself one. The answer, it seems clear, is that she cannot be reelected to the Senate in 2024 as a Democrat because her unwillingness to "do what [she's] told" by her party makes it impossible to win a Democratic primary in her state. As Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz) said, Sinema's decision "isn't about a post-partisan epiphany, it's about political preservation." But Sinema voted the Joe Biden line in the vast majority of instances — more than 90 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Shouldn't that level of loyalty, plus her track record of success in a state that until recently was Red, be enough to prevail in a primary or even to avoid one? Not in today's Democratic party. What were the "disloyal" acts that doomed Sinema with her party? The main one seems to be her refusal to join the effort to get rid of the Senate filibuster to pass left-liberal voting legislation. This is what led the Arizona Democratic party to censure her in January. During the Trump administration, Democrats vigorously opposed any abridgement of the Senate filibuster. Yet, Sinema's refusal to do a sudden about-face on the matter condemned her to censure by her party. Whatever Sinema's motive for leaving the Democrats, her censure confirms that there's no room in that party for a principled, independent-minded Senator. Sinema also balked at the $3.5 trillion "Build Back Better" bill last year. However, she eventually voted for a much trimmer version of the bill. This didn't pacify liberals, though, because she demanded changes to a tax targeting private equity executives. I understand why this demand upset liberals, but doesn't it fall short of a hanging offense? Not in today's Democratic party. Sinema's move speaks volumes about that party. Yet, the mainstream media, while treating Liz Cheney's troubles with Republicans as evidence that the GOP is hopelessly cultish, treats Sinema's switch as an inside baseball, political horserace story and a case of opportunism. Sinema is behaving opportunistically. However, the media should pay more attention to why opportunism required her to stop being a Democrat.
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2 comments:
As is stated more and more often,there IS no Democrat or Republican party--just a uniparty that seeks to destroy America--and has pretty much done so in our medium to large cities already.
When will Sinema be called a "White supremacist" for veering away from the sick agenda that Pelosi and Schumer have led?
We'll have to see if she changes her voting pattern at all,first,before commenting further.
--GRA
The Sinema, Machin from West Virginia and Tulsa gabbard are all examples of Democrats looking at woke type Behavior and saying that this is a big disaster for the country rather that they should be Independent then call themselves Democrats they can at least negotiate for some favorable treatment from Republicans.
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