Kyrsten Sinema- The Reason We Can't Have Nice Things, #2

If she walks like an asshole, talks like an asshole, sounds like an asshole, and acts like an asshole...is it possible she could STILL be an asshole?

You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

D’ya remember when Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (WTF-AZ) was considered the Senate’s (and Arizona’s) “Great White Hope?” Yeah, I don’t, either- it was that long ago. Once she did her John McCain imitation in the well of the Senate, completely with curtsy and thumbs-down, it was clear that Sen. Sinema’s give-a-fuck was irreparably broken and that she’d decided to go her own way.

The problem, of course, was that no one knew what that way was. And for her first few years in the Senate, her unpredictability was more of an irritant than a problem. She came to be seen as a gadfly few took seriously. You can afford to be a gadfly when the waters are smooth and the forecast is for continued good weather and calm seas.

When Kyrsten Sinema won the Democratic primary nomination for Senate in 2018, she received the full endorsement from Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said, "Kyrsten Sinema is the leader Arizona needs, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund is proud to stand with her and endorse her candidacy for U.S. Senate. She has tirelessly fought for Planned Parenthood patients’ access to the full range of reproductive health care during her tenure in the House, and she will continue to champion women in the Senate."

Cut to five years later: Sinema's up for re-election in 2024 and almost every major abortion rights group has severed ties with her. Much has changed since 2018 — including Sinema's party affiliation. However Sinema's position on abortion has mostly remained the same, and that's the whole problem. Back in summer 2018, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett weren't yet on the Supreme Court and Roe v Wade still existed. It was sufficient for then-Democrat Sinema to say, "A person should be able to make personal health decisions with her family and her doctor without a politician in Washington telling her what to do."

The problem soon became crystal clear. Sinema’s position on abortion hadn’t changed, but everything else surrounding abortion had. Instead of being willing to “tirelessly fight” for women’s access to a full range of reproductive healthcare services, Sinema’s taste for metaphorical combat had diminished to virtually zero.

Sen. Sinema mysteriously receded into the background when it became clear that the threats to Roe v. Wade were ramping up and abortion-rights supporters were looking to her for leadership.

Just a few years later, it was no longer enough to declare that you'll boldly maintain the status quo. Conservatives held a six-three majority on the Supreme Court. The clock was ticking for Roe. Emily's List, which had congratulated Sinema on her 2018 victory, yanked its endorsement after Sinema's January 2022 speech confirming that she'd never, ever vote to kill the filibuster — not for voting rights, abortion rights, or really anything she'd previously claimed to support.

After the Samuel Alito Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, Sinema tweeted, "A woman’s health care decisions should be between her, her family, and her doctor. Today's decision overturning Roe v. Wade endangers the health and wellbeing of women in Arizona and across America."

Hey, that's all true! What are you — a sitting US senator — gonna do about it? We know she has nothing but contempt for activism, but here's where she can deliver on all her "I get stuff done!" bluster.

"Throughout my time in Congress," she went on, "I’ve always supported women’s access to health care, and I’ll continue working with anyone to protect women’s ability to make decisions about their futures."

So: nothing. She planned to do absolutely nothing. When a Pima County judge ruled that a near-total abortion ban from 1901 was back in effect, she tweeted this cut-and-paste homily: "A woman’s health care decisions should be between her, her family, and her doctor. Today’s decision removes basic rights Arizona women have relied upon for over a century and endangers their health, safety, and well-being."

Of course, she still supported the right of women to have free and unfettered access to reproductive healthcare, but it no longer appeared she was willing to DO anything to fight for that right.

So, yeah, she would do precisely nothing save for offering up a plethora of flowery, meaningless words that, when adequately parsed, made her intentions to sit on the sidelines crystal clear. Not only was her give-a-fuck broken, it had gone MIA.

But, as she’d offer up when challenged,

I’ll continue working with anyone to advance commonsense proposals ensuring women in Arizona and across the country can access the health care they need and have the ability to make their own decisions about their future.

So, there you have it- 36 words that sound good if you’re not paying attention. Still, if you’re even reasonably adept at translating political-speak, you know what the senior Senator from Arizona is saying:

“I ain’t doin’ squat for nobody.”

Once Roe v. Wade was s**t-canned by the Supremes (it was almost as if The Former Guy stacked the court expressly for that, no?), it became a free-for-all to see which state could become the most aggressively and obviously misogynistic.

And Sinema appeared to deliberately and aggressively clueless about what was happening in red states. Those states- most in the south and southeast, but also in places like Idaho, Missouri, and Wisconsin, were passing abortion bans set as early as six weeks- before most women can even know they’re pregnant.

During this time, Sen. Sinema has remained distressingly quiet, as if she’s decided that abortion was no longer her battle to fight. This was even though numerous women’s groups had enthusiastically endorsed her candidacy in 2018.

Now, despite those endorsements, she’s completely backed away from the commitments implicit in those endorsements. She’s even quit the Democratic Party to become an Independent (a lá Bernie Sanders), stating that she no longer wanted to be boxed in by Democratic orthodoxy. Or because she wanted to be even more useless to more people. No one knows for sure, but the end result’s the same.

One has to wonder if there haven’t been financial incentives for the Senator to back away from previous commitments and move significantly further to the Right. No, that’s not an accusation, nor do I have proof to back that up. Still, one needs to ponder how the positions of a formerly Progressive Senator can change so substantially over a few short years.

Sinema insists she's "always supported women’s access to health care," but she also voted to confirm 95 of Donald Trump's right-wing zealot anti-abortion judges, including Michael Liburdi who now sits on the US District Court of Arizona. (Republicans in "red" states have refused to return blue slips for some of Biden's judicial nominees.)

Ninety-five percent? That number alone should be cause for suspicion, yet it’s barely attracted the attention of the mainstream media.

How is it that someone who ran for a Senate seat in Arizona on a very Progressive track record managed to see her way clear to voting for 95% of The Former Guy’s judicial nominees? This question is especially notable when considering that more than a few of those nominees had been deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association.

Given her record and overall fecklessness on abortion rights, it's not a shock that Emily's List, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are done with Sinema. “Given our endorsement criteria, Sen. Sinema is ineligible for our support,” said Ryan Sitzlein, senior national political director at NARAL. These groups spent a combined $3 million to help elect Sinema in 2018, and maybe Sinema assumes her hedge fund friends can make up the difference. However, PACs can't vote for her. She'll need active support from the very people she's let down or outright abandoned.

A 2022 exit poll in Arizona showed that 62 percent of voters want abortion to remain legal, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs carried that group by more than 50 percentage points. Voters who demand their reproductive freedom and won't settle for banal platitudes aren't likely to choose Sinema.

And while there is as yet no confirmation from Sen. Sinema that she plans to run for re-election, her staff is preparing as if she’s planning to do so.

If the Senator does run again, she’ll no doubt lean on her years-long pro-abortion stance to help carry her through…though she almost certainly won’t be running as a Democrat. Having left the party and declined to align with Republicans, Sen. Sinema will compete as an Independent if she runs for re-election. This means she won’t have a party infrastructure to lean on for assistance and will be even more dependent on large donors and thus further compromising her perceived independence.

She would enter an unprecedented three-way general election race featuring an incumbent without the backing of either major political party. She’d likely run against Rep. Ruben Gallego, who appears to have cleared the Democratic primary field, and a yet-to-be-determined Republican opponent. Sheriff Mark Lamb has already jumped into the GOP primary, and 2022 gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, who has repeatedly denied legitimate election results, is also strongly considering a run.

Sinema would bring a consistently pro-abortion-rights stance and record to a race in a critical swing state that rejected anti-abortion candidates like Lake in 2022. But her relationships with influential progressive and reproductive rights groups currently range from rocky to nonexistent over her position on the Senate’s filibuster rules, further complicating the dynamics of such an election. 

You can bet that if Sen. Sinema runs, there will be millions upon millions of dollars flowing into Arizona. Both national parties will be highly invested in the race, with PACs, corporations, and other large donors right behind them.

Not only will money flow in large quantities, but so will bullshit, lies, and propaganda from the Far Right. The Arizona Senate race will become one of the most hotly contested (and thoroughly dishonest) races in 2024.

Rep. Gallego has been shown to have the edge for the Democratic nomination thus far. Still, a race with two Democrats and a Republican may result in a split Democratic vote and a Republican victory. Not that Kari Lake or Mark Lamb are good candidates- neither of them is, and both are willing to lie as far and long as necessary to win- but Arizona is still arguably a purple/red state.

Perhaps Krysten Sinema knows precisely what she’s doing, and this is all part of her grand strategy. Maybe she’s far more intelligent and politically savvy than any observer has been willing to give her credit for…but it’s hard to see that being the case from here.

It looks like she thinks she’s playing the game at a different level and that she’s smarter than everyone else when, in fact, political observers and the people of Arizona have figured her out.

Planned Parenthood Advocates Arizona does not endorse candidates in federal races but slammed Sinema’s opposition to reforming the filibuster as “disregard” for her constituents, warning “she will have to live with the political consequences.” Planned Parenthood Action Fund and its affiliated super PAC, Planned Parenthood Votes, spent over $1.4 million supporting Sinema’s 2018 campaign.

“She hasn’t been the backstop for abortion rights that folks would have assumed or liked her to be, although I know that she’s personally very supportive,” Love said. “Now, we’re in a position where I think the national organization is really going to have to do some deep analysis and soul-searching about what happens next to that race.”

I’ll admit to being excited when Sinema won her seat in 2018. It seemed as if Democrats had secured a Senate seat held by someone with dependably Progressive ideals and values. Kyrsten Sinema was young and enthusiastic and seemed a good bet to carry her Progressivism through perhaps 2-3 terms.

So, yes, I was every bit as surprised and angry when the senior Senator from Arizona began to act more like a Republican than many Republicans in the Senate. The reliably Progressive ideals move ever further rightward, with the final blow being Sen. Sinema’s refusal to vote to remove the filibuster.

Her argument that the filibuster “compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles” rings hollow, as if she didn’t grasp- or didn’t care- the gravity of the threat to abortion rights.

I believe it was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who once said, “There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.” I have to believe there’s a reserved parking space waiting for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.