As Matt covered over the weekend, former Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema teed off on many of her former colleagues, and deservedly so. She was one of a tiny handful of Senate Democrats who were willing to save the filibuster when her party held the upper chamber majority, arguing that it would be short-sighted to jettison a tool that Democrats would inevitably want to use again in the future. They dragged her, hard, and ultimately drove her out of the party. In fact, the two Senate Democrats who most publicly held the line on maintaining that key leverage point for the minority -- Sinema and Joe Manchin -- are both out of Congress. Sinema made the argument at the time that even if she supported some of the agenda items Democrats wanted to pass by eliminating the filibuster, they'd come to regret doing so as soon as they were back in the minority. This was obviously true and a sound argument, but it largely fell on deaf ears. She was treated like a pariah and a traitor.
But, guess what? She was correct, and her vindication didn't take very long to materialize. Now that Democrats have been relegated back to minority status, their enthusiasm for the filibuster has returned. No longer is it a racist 'Jim Crow' relic, you see. It's once again an essential mechanism to 'save democracy,' or however Democrats try frame their current priorities. Sinema made sure the Democrats who'd savaged her on this front just a few short years ago heard about it. One of them, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, tried to claim that she's always been consistent in opposing the filibuster, arguing that Democrats don't use the tool. Not only was AOC loudly demanding that Senate Democrats filibuster the Trump-backed Continuing Resolution last week (this gambit ultimately failed), Democrats have undeniably exploited the filibuster -- sometimes promiscuously -- to block Republican-supported bills. Her tantrums are both incoherent and fact-challenged. Who's surprised?
Just noting that Democrats have used the legislative filibuster already on two GOP bills this Congress https://t.co/9daUsufDoP pic.twitter.com/seomK9sISM
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) March 16, 2025
.@AOC: “Democrats never use the filibuster.”
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) March 15, 2025
REALITY: the last time Senate Democrats were in the minority, they used it 327 times in a single year pic.twitter.com/dtJsvTXelF
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Sinema didn't let this one slide, either:
Senate Dems have used the filibuster 2x in 2025 to stop bills.
— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) March 16, 2025
Perhaps we have a different definition of NEVER. I use the English definition: “at no time in the past or future; on no occasion; not ever.”
1/22/25 - https://t.co/y57TStQkq0
3/3/25 - https://t.co/ZfoPY3lehg https://t.co/BujERDunOR
Literally zero Senate Democrats support the filibuster.
— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) March 15, 2025
38 voted to filibuster the continuing resolution yesterday.
8 who previously voted to eliminate the filibuster (1/19/22) did not filibuster.
1 who previously campaigned against the filibuster did not filibuster. https://t.co/BujERDunOR
Turns out, someone HAS made the spreadsheet. Bless this platform. https://t.co/hfIMJDIubs pic.twitter.com/VI2mEN2mU1
— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) March 15, 2025
She's got these shameless hypocrites dead to rights, and she deserves to take this victory lap. Democrats are adrift, engaged in venomous infighting, as they seek some path to effective opposition. Some want full-throated, deranged "resistance." Others want a different approach. "Everyone is mad at everyone." Even as Donald Trump's approval rating slides across various aggregators, his troubles (some of which people see as self-inflicted) pale in comparison to, well, this:
CNN POLL - Democratic Party’s favorability rating stands at 29% – a record low in CNN’s polling dating back to 1992 and a drop of 20 points since January 2021.
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 16, 2025
🟢 Favorable: 29%
🟤 Unfavorable: 54%https://t.co/ZB4Om6dz1U pic.twitter.com/OsGccWia4l
NBC News poll: Just 7 percent of Americans have a very favorable opinion of the Democratic Party... the lowest number ever recorded
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 16, 2025
Democratic Party hits lowest favorability rating in four recent polls
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 16, 2025
Favorable - Unfavorable (net)
CNN/SSRS: 29-54 (-25)
YouGov: 34-60 (-26)
Quinnipiac: 31-57 (-26)
NBC News: 27-55 (-28)
——
Republican party
Quinnipiac: 43-45 (-2)
NBC News: 39-49 (-10)
YouGov: 44-51 (-7)… https://t.co/uGCtfwJ5uy pic.twitter.com/EnOcTFDU2V
Some of this is attributable to Democratic voters being livid with their own party, believing they're ineffective, or not fighting hard enough. But a lot of it is an overall electorate that sees an extreme, shambolic, petulant, obnoxious political party that has lost the plot. Are Democrats on a path to restoring trust and coming across as more sensible and aligned with America's values? It does not appear so:
They’re really doing it.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 16, 2025
They’re arguing that President Trump shouldn’t be able to deport illegal immigrants who are members of violent criminal gangs openly terrorizing neighborhoods. https://t.co/gsgAwap3kJ
Prepare for the next 80/20 issue - Dems passionately arguing for the return of Venezuelan gang members to spite Trump. https://t.co/HIwiaSOOhb
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) March 16, 2025
Musk became a citizen of the United States decades ago. It’s revealing how top Democrats talk about him vs. illegal immigrants and/or non-citizen Hamas supporters. https://t.co/7sbnpVl0fC
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 15, 2025
Astounding. They’d do it again in a heartbeat even knowing how much harm they did. https://t.co/ALNP7rKR7c
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) March 16, 2025
Free Mahmoud Khalil. pic.twitter.com/o9AkeXaYyh
— Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 (🦋 now on bsky) (@JudiciaryDems) March 10, 2025
If voters don't think economic conditions have improved markedly -- or have even deteriorated -- in the coming few years, Democrats will bounce back politically, by default. But right now, the opposition party looks like a motley crew of angry lunatics, and voters are justifiably repulsed by what they see.
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