In an Op-Ed article for Arizona Central Sen. Kyrsten Sinema explains: Why I’m registering as an independent
Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.
In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought. Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.
Arizonans – including many registered as Democrats or Republicans – are eager for leaders who focus on common-sense solutions rather than party doctrine.
But if the loudest, most extreme voices continue to drive each party toward the fringes – and if party leaders stay more focused on energizing their bases than delivering for all Americans – these kinds of lasting legislative successes will become rarer.
When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans. That’s why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.
Kyrsten Sinema an Independent for Arizona
Who Will Sinema Caucus With?
There were already two independent senators in the Senate, Angus King in Maine and Bernie Sanders in Vermont. Both caucus with the Democrats.
If Sinema chooses to caucus with Democrats then the Democrats will retain their 51-49 edge. If not, it’s back to 50-50.
The Wall Street Journal reports Kyrsten Sinema Switches to Independent, Complicates Democratic Control of Senate
“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington,” she wrote in an opinion article in the Arizona Republic
In an interview with CNN, she said questions about whether the Democrats’ majority would remain at 51-49 or effectively become 50-49 was “kind of a D.C. thing to worry about.”
Earlier this year, her relationship with state Democrats dissolved so completely that there were few Democrats she spoke to in the state, according to several Arizona Democrats. In one notorious incident in October 2021, activists followed Ms. Sinema into a bathroom to protest her efforts to pare back Mr. Biden’s spending agenda.
One Down, One to Go
It makes no sense for Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia to caucus with Democrats. Manchin has little in common with them.
Democrats screwed Manchin over royally on energy policy, reneging on promises made to him to for his vote on the ridiculously-named Inflation Reduction Act.
He declined to comment following Sinema’s announcement on Friday.
If Manchin and Sinema switched to independents caucusing with Republicans then Democrats would lose control of the Senate as well.
Irony of the Day
Progressives activists hounded Sinema out of the party.
This is very much like Trump hounding out anyone who would not suck up to his preposterous Stop the Steal nonsense.
Trump cost Republicans the Senate. It would be beautifully ironic if Progressives returned the favor.
Inflation Reduction Act
For more on the IRA please see The EU is Very Worried About Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
Also see Biden’s Climate Change War Picks Up Steam In More Ways Than One
This post originated on MishTalk.Com.
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Mish
Ladies & Gents, the level of
vitriol in some of our posts is, well, not particularly helpful. We gotta
remember that we’re all inhabitants of this infinitesimally small orb (HOW many
planets in our solar system? How many solar systems?). NO one is right 100% of the time.
As valuable as Mish’s posts are, there’s true gold in the comments, too. Pocket your ego for now; there are many
well-educated (and occasionally brilliant) voices contributing. For my
money, it’s intelligent discourse that moves us all forward, not angry
evaluations of opposing viewpoints. How can we work together to make this a
world which will support and enliven future generations?
WHAT?
vocabulary, or low intelligence. Instead, swearing appears to be a
feature of language that an articulate speaker can use in order to
communicate with maximum effectiveness…” link to medicalxpress.com
By the way, if the Dems end the filibuster it’ll be the mother of all self-defeating moves. We shall see just how stupid they wind up being. You never know, but I’d be surprised.
I will be surprised if this is anything but Sinema- and Arizona-specific. If she caucused with the Republicans I’d change my mind, and I’d really change my mind if she brought Manchin with her. Given how the Dems have treated both of them, especially Manchin, I think they ought to switch parties. It would be a great middle finger to the small-p “progressives” who have been running the Democrats into their woke ditch. But I’m not seeing it right now, given what Schumer and some other higher-ups have been saying.
The media have always been a bunch of amateur political scientists at the expense of actual news, so they’re in high thumb-sucking mode over this. I’m not buying it unless she switches parties, and especially if Manchin also does it. That would be a big deal, but I really don’t expect it.
If she was going to do it, I think she’d have done it. Throw in the reaction from Schumer and some other higher-ups among the Dems, and I think she’ll cling to the Dems even as they kick her to the curb. Sigmund Freud can explain why.
I don’t see any of that. Give me a link or shut up.
Folks, elections are a distraction. Oh, and personal corruption has long been a pre-requisite for holding high office in this country. Truman and Eisenhower were exceptions, at least insofar as we know, but that’s it. Forget about the laptop. It doesn’t matter, unless the spooks want it to matter. Which they will, if Biden doesn’t keep toeing the line.
p.s.: Is your head exploding yet? LOL