Tipsheet

Women's Website: Don't Bully Women...Unless It's Kyrsten Sinema

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 05, 2021 1:40 PM

It's a good thing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has thick skin. I can only imagine what her social media interactions are right now. The phone calls to her office that her staff must answer must be outrageous as well. She’s nuking her party’s plans for this $3.5 trillion spending package. Democrats want to pass it via reconciliation because every Senate Republican is opposed; they can’t invoke cloture. So, not a single Democrat can defect. Vice President Harris casts the tie-breaking vote. Except there are two defections. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is another ‘no’ vote, calling this package fiscal insanity. Activists are following her into the bathroom, folks. This is the Left. The Democrats probably won’t have this opportunity to pass such a left-wing goodie bag for the foreseeable future, so the tantrums are as expected as well as the media hypocrisy. Take Jezebel’s post on Sinema. The women’s website was quite blunt: ‘Absolutely Bully Kyrsten Sinema Outside Of Her Bathroom Stall’ (via Jezebel):

On Sunday, social justice organization Living United for Change in Arizona uploaded a video of activists asking Sinema to defend her opposition to President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, an ambitious package which promises additional covid-19 relief, an extension of the Child Tax Credit, the creation of millions of clean-energy jobs, the revitalization of the nation’s infrastructure, universal preschool, free community college, an extension of covid-19 economic relief, and more. The Biden administration intends to pay for the multi-trillion dollar bill by making wealthy Americans and corporations pay higher taxes.

Democrats at large support the bill, but two Senate Democrats, in particular, are busy holding up any significant advancements: Conservative Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sinema of Arizona.

The two have been in lockstep, opposing any modicum of progress since Biden entered office and insisting that means testing and smaller budgets suffice in solving decades-old problems and systemic inequities. But it’s Sinema’s unique brand of amused aloofness that grates in a way that Manchin’s inherent stubbornness does not.

[…]

for all the pearl-clutching, few are providing a more effective and safe alternative to what these activists did. They told Sinema, to her face—and through a door—that she was failing them and why. There was no violence, no rude language, nothing. Just a few constituents following their representative into a large bathroom to air their grievances. What should they have done instead? Call her office and direct their ire through a receptionist like surely countless Americans do each day? Write her a letter she won’t read? Vote her into office again and hope that, this time, she’ll deign them important enough to listen to?

But maybe it’s easier to act like a public bathroom is a sacred place than criticize the fact that Sinema decided to hide from her voters like a coward.

Meanwhile, publications will likely continue to busy themselves marveling at the ease in which Sinema refuses to back down from her convoluted principles. But outside of the beltway bullshit, voters who saw her as the lesser of any number of Arizona evils in the voting booth have to contend with the fact that they might as well have stayed home and let her Republican competitor win. At this juncture, it’s hard to see much of a difference.

Well, Sen, Mark Kelly (D-AZ) also condemned the tactic, so I guess he’s a neo-Nazi too huh? What’s hilarious about this tantrum post is that Sinema doesn’t care. She is willing to walk away from all of this if the clown show continues; her allies made that clear. She is not going to kowtow by Washington’s rules. She’s fiercely independent. We’ve known this for quite some time. She is not going to let Chuck Schumer tell her what to do. Are progressives now saying that’s what she should be doing because that’s rather reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale? Be independent, except when you shouldn’t. It’s typical progressive values in the sense that they have none. The selling point is always shredded by its authoritarian roots—always. Sinema had a moderate-ish voting record even prior to her senate win. Also, and this is more of a swipe at the system here—everyone in DC lies. What is it with people who think that these politicians are going to do 100 percent of everything that they promise on the stump? They don’t. You exploit what’s not possible and you focus on what is—that’s how you win elections. These people lie. I don’t know what to tell you. If progressives thought Sinema was going to be like Bernie Sanders, I can’t help you there. 

The most obvious takeaway here is that it’s bad to bully people…until when it’s not, right? And yes, people found the receipts: