Senator Sinema Speaks Her Piece

 

A message for Arizonans from Senator Kyrsten Sinema pic.twitter.com/1XWFSWgGdh

— Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) March 5, 2024

Having watched this a number of times, my brain has settled on translating the change of tenses as: "I was trying to solve problems by embracing working across the aisle, but we weren't having that, were we? So you lost out. Audi 5000, you guys." 

I've tried to grasp what makes an intelligent person who presented as a left-leaning politician decide to explore the middle and it always came up as a fashion statement--which isn't to minimize what she tried to do, it's just to say that when McCain did it, it was because he "remembered when". Now, I just got done posting that we could use folks willing to be bipartisan and bemoaned that guys like Jim Lankford weren't getting credit--from Republicans for doing just that. And I'm not saying bipartisanship is wrong--it's just that it can't exist for its own sake. Shafting voting bills or minimum wage raises--things dear to the Democratic base, is just masochism. 

What darlings would the GOP get asked to surrender? (Not the carried interest deduction. But what?) 

The valley that exists--the great disruption in our bipartisanship, has to do to a large extent with distrust. I think it was Grover Norquist who defined bipartisanship as "date rape"--meaning one side had the upper hand and the other had to comply by force. Graceful acquiescence to the needs of the present moment just isn't the current ethos. It's sad. It's true though. We just don't think doing business with the other side doesn't involve, to be extremely blunt--getting fucked. 

Trying to explore that middle ground cost Sinema a lot. I think a lot of us cynics could have told her what would have happened for free. And I wish her well in her future endeavors. And I wish Ruben Gallego VERY WELL in his. Please start contributing to this good man's campaign. 

A Solemn Anniversary and the Ongoing Coup

 

Today, President Biden bestowed one of our nation's highest honors, the President's Civilian Medal, to people who held the line for democracy and the truth regarding the Big Lie in the face of the violence promulgated by the promoters of the voter fraud canard and those who did their part to prevent the coup attempt of 1/6 from prospering. 

His words bear some listening:

And let me close with this.  Eighty-two years ago, on this very day in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union Address that became known as his famous “Four Freedoms” speech, as he defined America’s place in the world. 

He reminded the American people of, quote, the “strength from the things which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic life in America.  Things that have toughened the fiber of our people, renewed their faith, and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.”  End of quote.

Eighty years ago, after that speech, on this day two years ago, we were reminded about the most fundamental of things: democracy itself. 

As I’ve said before, we face an inflection point in our nation’s history.  On January 6th, it’s a reminder that there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy. 

There is nothing guaranteed about our democracy. It's a truth our Founding fathers knew. They knew that the price of freedom (the "part where freedom isn't free") was eternal vigilance (regardless of who gets attributed the sentiment). Vigilance against the would-be tyrants, the demagogues, the inciters of crowds and promoters of smashed windows and shot-up homes.  The space where liberty is safe is where truth can gain on a lie even if the lie had a head start, where honest people don't fall for malarkey even when it comes with side-order of strong-arming, where people charged with the duty to protect and serve understand full well what to protect and who is served by it. That liberty isn't the mad abandon of a ravening crowd, but the peace of any citizen under their fig tree and vine, and none shall make them afraid. 

The saboteurs of our democracy want to anoint themselves as "patriots", and they may very well have the money and the barrels of ink behind them to try and rewrite the near-past to create a kind of "lost cause" mythos where maybe the rioters had a point--but they never did. This was not a Civil War, this was just brainwashed thugs supporting Trump because they wanted a reality show host to have another disastrous term because they don't understand how fucking government works. 

Look at right-wing media, or even just the bullshit going on with the Speaker of the House decision--the coup is ongoing, There is a significant part of the Republican milieu that opposes the concept of good government, democracy, that sees partisanship as a religion and opposition to Democrats as part of a holy war.  

Ideally, we would be better than this. It wasn't necessarily true in FDR's time, and it isn't now.  But we must be vigilant, and we must nevertheless hold the line. Just as these good folks who were awarded today had done. 

UPDATE: In a separate ceremony on the Capitol steps, only one Republican showed up to commemorate the day and the efforts of law enforcement in protecting those members and our democracy.  

And in separate news, Trump is still defaming Ruby Freeman, who had done absolutely nothing to him, and whose safety is impacted by his lying words.

These actions seem very revealing to me. The coup isn't over.

Take the Hint, Dems

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that "the era of bipartisanship is over" in remarks earlier today. pic.twitter.com/hC0zBRnLEL

— POLITICO (@politico) June 8, 2021

Mitch McConnell is the guy who said earlier this year his job was to 100% block the Biden agenda. This was the guy who did the same thing to Obama, and denied him a SCOTUS pick. This guy right here, who says in the clip above, that the era of bipartisanship is over, and if you want the time of death--shit, that thing has been buried. He doesn't want to pass any kind of voting rights bill, any more than he wanted to even bring up voting security legisalation before the 2020 election. He doesn't want any kind of infrastructure or jobs bill that will, in his mind, hand President Biden a win.

He doesn't want it. And if the filibuster is at 60 votes, you get less than 10 Republicans for anything. And if the filibuster was set down to 55 votes, you'd be lucky to get 2 or three. That's how he wants it, and he gets it.

That's not to say you won't sometimes pass bills with Republican support or get certain cabinet or judicial appointments filled. It isn't to say some of the more moderate Senate Republicans will always toe McConnell's line--but I don't see how sticking to the ghost of bipartisanship helps.

And here's the thing--McConnell killed it, so you don't even have to feel guilty. Someone gets in your face about whatever happened to bipartisanship--you know who to point to. 

That was how he wanted it. That's how he should get it.

I Just....

"January 6th changed me."

In a CNN exclusive, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) says his increased calls for bipartisanship are because of the Capitol insurrection. pic.twitter.com/cME1k3aGz1

— The Recount (@therecount) April 9, 2021

I can't imagine being the person who went through January 6th and came away with the idea "Oh yeah, these guys, we could get along if we just really tried it." I'm not even 100% sure Manchin is the person who really thinks that. That's how much I can't imagine it. Is that like Stockholm syndrome or something?

My takeaway is...not the same as his.