Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced today that she’s leaving the Democratic Party to register as an Independent, citing the failure of the two-party system to meet the needs of Americans.
Writing for AZCentral.com, Sinema explained that Arizonans in particular are just too “independent” to follow one party or another, and that the parties’ “rigid partisanship” and “extreme voices” drove her to jump ship from the party of abortion, sodomy, and “transgenderism.”
Maybe so. But a gang of conservative Republicans didn’t chase Sinema into a restroom over a Senate vote. And a GOP president didn’t say that being cornered in a restroom stall was just part of American politics.
So, yeah, as Sinema says, some voices are “extreme.” But most are on the Left, as a 30-second glance at Twitter shows.
Americans “Left Behind” by “False Choice”
“There’s a disconnect between what everyday Americans want and deserve from our politics, and what political parties are offering,” Sinema began:
While Arizonans don’t all agree on the issues, we are united in our values of hard work, common sense and independence.
We make our own decisions, using our own judgment and lived experiences to form our beliefs. We don’t line up to do what we’re told, automatically subscribe to whatever positions the national political parties dictate or view every issue through labels that divide us.
Each day, Arizonans wake up, work and live alongside people with different views and experiences, usually without even thinking about partisan politics.
True enough. But millions of other Americans find participating in public debate increasingly difficult thanks to leftist extremists, such as those who blacklisted and shadowbanned conservatives on Twitter. Or those who harass Republicans in restaurants. Or those who invade Senate office buildings and pound on the doors of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Still, she continued, “Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.”
Again, true. But Sinema didn’t identify the political persuasion of the partisans who followed her into a restroom, with cellphones out and recording. Those partisans were leftists upset about her positions on immigration and President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill. One was a deportable illegal alien.
“In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought,” Sinema continued:
Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.
Americans are told that we have only two choices — Democrat or Republican — and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes.
Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different. I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. I committed I would not demonize people I disagreed with, engage in name-calling, or get distracted by political drama.…
But if the loudest, most extreme voices continue to drive each party toward the fringes — and if party leaders stay more focused on energizing their bases than delivering for all Americans — these kinds of lasting legislative successes will become rarer.
It’s no wonder a growing number of Americans are registering as independents. In Arizona, that number often outpaces those registered with either national party.
And so, she wrote, “I registered as an Arizona independent.”
That isn’t likely to keep leftists from chasing her into bathrooms, particularly when the president of the party she left was the key voice “catering to the fringes.”
“I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody,” Biden said regarding the bathroom incident. “The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it’s a part of the process.”
Also chased down by unhinged leftists was fellow Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He was on his boat when kayakers confronted him.
Not a Conservative
Lest anyone think Sinema is a closet conservative, the bisexual senator bragged only yesterday that her “Respect for Marriage Act” went to Biden for his signature.
The unconstitutional bill forbids the states from outlawing fake same-sex and other “marriages.”
“In 2006, Sinema led the effort to successfully defeat Proposition 107, which would have banned same-sex marriages in Arizona and negatively impacted unmarried couples, common law marriages, and domestic partnerships,” her Senate website brags. “This was the first successful defeat of a ballot proposition involving LGBTQ rights in the nation.”
Then again, next to the crackpots in the Biden administration, such as nuclear waste chief Sam Brinton and Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard “Rachel” Levine, Sinema looks like a traditional conservative, even if she is a switch hitter.