So, Kyrsten Sinema is practically Arlen Spectering herself. Remember Arlen Specter, the GOP senator from PA who I regularly reference in terms of how the democrats should treat moderates who don't go along them, and how the GOP ran him out of the party and got Toomey in instead? Yeah, that's basically what seems to be happening here.
It's been floated for a while that Arizona might wanna primary her if she runs on the democratic ticket. So instead she's going to run as an independent. No primary, no problem. Except, her leaving the party is a bit more insidious. Unlike Specter, who tried to join the democrats, Sinema is going to be an independent. What's the logic behind this? Well, democrats didnt like Specter either and he lost their primary. She can't run as a republican or she'll lose. So she's instead running as an independent, hoping to appeal to the enlightened centrist vote. This serves as a warning to the democrats not to run anyone against her because she will split the vote and that whackjob Keri Lake will win if she runs again. She's trying to jockey for the kind of treatment the likes of Bernie Sanders and Angus King get, where they're not democrats, but get the blessing from the democrats to keep their seats. After all, if the democrats run anyone it would split the vote, and it would backfire.
Except...ya know what? In this situation, I'm fine with the democrats running someone. Here's the thing. Given the incumbency problem in this country, once these people get in power, it's hard to dislodge them until they voluntarily retire or unless they majorly piss off their constituents, which Sinema did by taking the compromise and incrementalism thing so far even the neolibs are getting pissed off with it. She is one of the two logjams sabotaging Biden's agenda and stopping the senate from being able to do anything despite dems having control of it. And you know what? I'm fine with just purging her from the party. If she loses her election, she's done, she's probably not coming back, if she did she would get like 1% of the vote, and the democrats would just run someone who actually plays ball like Mark Kelly, the other senator from AZ.
And you know what? That's what the republicans do. I recommend people read What's the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank to look at how the GOP did things in the 2000s and early 2010s. There were the same problems the current democratic party has between moderates and more right leaning voters, and the right leaning voters just freaking voted out their moderate candidates. Moderates tried to play their games to stay in power there too, but the voters wouldn't have it. That's the culture between the left and the right. The democrats kiss up to moderates and put incrementalism and compromise on a pedestal. The republicans were fine with losing one election, and temporarily getting some democrats into power in order to play the long game. Then the GOP came back with the tea party and after and boom, they dont have a moderate problem any more. If anything they're going too extreme.
I would advise against going as extremely populist as the GOP did. They're going full steam toward fascism at this point, although it looks like there's a glimmer of hope with the 2022 mid terms and how suddenly, people are gaining a conscience and dumping trump and his Jan 6th crap. I mean, I know how obnoxious and extreme the far leftists like the socialists, the Bernie Bros (which I used to consider myself one), and the SJWs can get, but there's a sane middle ground there. I just want social democracy. And in this case, we're expelling one moderate member who pretty much showed herself out and sabotaged Biden's relatively weak and already watered down agenda. I'm FINE with running her out, even at the temporary cost of that seat, and then installing someone more progressive in 2030. Honestly, that's how bad our political situation is. While the GOP is extreme, the centrist dems literally do hold the system hostage trying to save their own legacies and political careers by playing these games of chicken with their voters. And while I admit that calling the dems on their BS is painful, especially given the radical nature of the modern GOP...the alternative is being stuck with these moderates who constantly sabotage progress while using the threat of said radical GOP as the alternative to them.
At some point, something HAS to give. And I'm fine with just expelling Sinema like the cancer that she is, because you know what? if it werent for moderates like that, we would have student loan forgiveness through CONGRESS. We could weaken the filibuster. We could strengthen abortion protections federally. We could get a half decent climate bill and save this planet from cooking itself. Ya know? I'm not saying biden's agenda is great, it's kinda the bare minimum all things considered. BUT, we can't even get THAT. Why? because of crapheads like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
AZ is a state that has gone increasingly blue in the post McCain era there. It's kind of astonishing how fast they've shifted from being a pretty safe red state to a purple state, and it's one of the few states the dems' new "southern strategy" seems to be working in (the other being Georgia). And it's not even that moderate. Outside of Sinema, they're electing pretty mainline democrats. We're not getting Bernies or AOCs from them. But we can do better than Sinema. So yeah. Expel her like the cancer she is, and replace her with another Mark Kelly. That's my stance on it at least.
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