It’s controversial to admit around obsessively partisan company but Democrats aren’t in great shape politically. They are about to experience an exceptionally brutal midterm election cycle. The party needs a makeover, and Bill Scher at Real Clear Politics recommends Senator Krysten Sinema as the ideal “face of Democrats in 2022.” We assume he’s serious.
Instead of lumping [Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema] together as party outliers gumming up the works, Biden should be celebrating Sinema for being a Democrat who gets things done. She was the lead negotiator, along with Republican Sen. Rob Portman, for one of the biggest legislative accomplishments of the Biden presidency: the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Sinema was also the catalyst for the gun safety deal nearing fruition. She sought out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and took his advice to connect with Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. She brought along the Democrats’ leading gun control advocate, Connecticut’s Chris Murphy. Together, the bipartisan quartet found common ground on gun safety legislation when many thought common ground was nonexistent.
The infrastructure deal is fine. We all love roads. However, it’s still a bit demoralizing that the “biggest legislative achievement of the Biden presidency” is a bill that Mitch McConnell approved. The Donald Trump tax cuts that Sinema is now dead-set on protecting passed on a party line vote without Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi’s stamp of approval. I’m not suggesting we should only celebrate the victories that come with our opponents’ humiliation, but we deserve to make McConnell cry once in a while.
PREVIOUSLY: Kyrsten Sinema Real Sad Biden, Pelosi Don’t Trust Her, Like She’s Not Trustworthy Or Something
Sinema has not actually built a reputation as a Democrat “who gets things done.” She barely has a reputation as an actual Democrat. She was present when the Mitt Romney-friendly infrastructure bill was negotiated, but she admitted herself (even if in jest) that all the “hard” questions about its passage should go to Senator Rob Portman. Once the infrastructure bill was passed, Sinema’s GOP buddies were able to demonize Biden’s social infrastructure spending bill as reckless socialism.
Sinema held Biden’s Build Back Better hostage until her preferred bill was law, infuriating and alienating her Democratic colleagues and the president himself. That’s not effective negotiation unless she was auditioning for one of the crooked salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross.
Scher claims that Sinema was “the catalyst for the gun safety deal” – rather than, say, 19 dead children. She also didn’t “bring along” Senator Chris Murphy like a designer handbag accessory. Murphy literally got down on his knees and begged the Senate to act. He was the actual public face of negotiations.
It’s also naive to presume that any Democrat with functioning brain cells trusts Sinema to make change for a dollar after her Build Back Better antics. There was even more reason to fear she’d just run out the clock on the GOP’s behalf and leave Democrats with egg noodles and ketchup. If anything reasonable passes, we’d have more reason to thank Chris Murphy (and other gun safety activists) than that raving egomaniac Sinema.
PREVIOUSLY:
Senator Of The Year Kyrsten Sinema Gives Rare Interview … Wait, Where Are You Going?
Kyrsten Sinema, Tolerated By Republicans, Loathed By Everyone Else!
Sinema has proven a useful tool for GOP interests during Biden’s first two years in office. Republicans are welcome to put her face on their T-shirts and mugs. However, Sinema’s obsession with the filibuster has prevented Democrats from defending abortion and voting rights, which she claims to support in the occasional tweet. While democracy has burned around us, Sinema has mocked Biden at GOP fundraisers while praising Big Lie-promoter Rep. Andy Biggs.
Bottom line: Krysten Sinema is terrible and everyone thinks she sucks. Here’s some amusing results from a recent poll of Arizona Democratic primary voters, which unfortunately for Sinema isn’t just the staff at Politico.
Similar to our first round of polling, Sinema is underwater with every demographic polled. Only 19 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, including 16 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of moderates, hold favorable views of her. In October, she held -44 points net favorability among women and -43 points net favorability among Latino/a voters. Now, she holds -58 points net favorability with women, while among Latino/a voters, she holds -50 points of net favorability. This represents a plunge of 14 points and 7 points, respectively, from our initial round of polling.
Sinema won’t survive a primary challenge, especially if it’s against Rep. Ruben Gallego. If Democrats need a new public face, they should choose pretty much anyone else (who’s not Joe Manchin).
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