The extremists

Gage Skidmore photo

Will Rogers quipped, "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." This was during the 1930s, when FDR's New Deal was made possible by an uneasy coalition of northern and midwestern big-city party bosses, unions, farmers, and Southern segregationists. Somehow it worked and the nation was saved.

Now, at another moment of national peril, the Democrats are not merely disorganized but deeply divided and nobody's laughing. Their time to make constructive moves on historic public investments in infrastructure, improve living standards, and return to progressive taxation is running down. If they fail and we get a Republican-controlled Congress next year and Donald Trump’s second term in 2024, we'll know who to blame.

In the past I've been willing to cut Sen. Kyrsten Sinema a break, tacking right sometimes to be viable in a red-purple state. It's in the "pinto" tradition of Arizona Democrats such as Carl Hayden. But in the Biden years, she's hardened into an extremist, deliberately blocking the president’s agenda when Democrats have momentary control of both houses of Congress. Like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, she's no "centrist." She's a destructive force who might as well be a Republican. And, like Manchin, she stands to profit from industries that oppose the Biden budget.

And they aren't the only ones.

In the House, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who represents the Seattle area and succeeded longtime Democratic deal-maker Jim McDermott, warned the White House that her progressive caucus would vote against the infrastructure bill unless the president did more to expand the social-safety net and push for other priorities such as liberalized immigration.

This wouldn’t have been such a problem before the Gingrich takeover of the GOP. At one time, this was a mass political party, too, with liberals, centrists, and. conservatives. Across-the-aisle deals and compromises were how politics worked. LBJ never would have seen the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts of 1965 passed without substantial Republican support.

But that was then. Today's GOP has been "purified" into a dogmatic, disciplined far-right party, wholly controlled by Donald Trump.

I remember in the early years of this blog, we had discussions about this or that party going the way of the Whigs. It's increasingly looking like the Democrats. The party may remain as a rump faction. But it seems only a matter of time before the far-left either splits off as its own party or takes over the Democratic Party.

Here's the rub: The left's Defund the Police, open borders, and other extremist policies won't play in most of America.

Along with vote suppression laws being passed in statehouses and the far-right politicized Supreme Court, this guarantees generations of Republican control. And this fleeting moment when Democrats could have proved that government often is the solution might as well have never happened.

And Sinema? She’s a survivor, even if the republic has to go down in service to her vanity, ambition, cynicism, and quest for attention.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[HMLS]

Sinema exemplifies the ethos of the of the typical Arizona born and bred Democrat and Independent. No surprise at all.

[Counter perspective]

I am puzzled by the complaint here, on two grounds.

First, although Biden won Arizona by a slim margin, can it really seriously be maintained that an equivalent, or greater, number of Arizonans want this bill? In other words, that their vote for president is truly a proxy for their support of his policies? It should be unnecessary for me to recite the repeated statements on this blog about how Arizona and its voters "will never be..." etc. Be honest: they are not an altruistic, selfless people who wake up every day trying to figure out how to accomplish the greater good. So you say and know all of this, and yet, complain anyhow!!! More importantly, ours is not a parliamentary system. So there is no basis for surprise or complaint when their representatives represent the majority of them, however deplorable, instead of toeing the party line.

Second, the comment on the purification conducted by the GOP is accurate. But it should be obvious that such purification is limiting and self-defeating. So the prognostication of decades of R control is overdone.

[Cal Lash]

“Jon said, And Sinema? She’s a survivor, even if the republic has to go down in service to her vanity, ambition, cynicism, and quest for attention.”

Jon this is an easy one!

Manchin/Sinema for president 2024.
Krysten may have been born in Arizona but after being a Green saw the future as a democrat.

Her ancestors were Dutch Frisians . So were the Marx brothers. Her grandparents were from Idaho and Iowa. Her dad was born in Arizona but a divorce sent a very young Kyrsten on to to the Florida Panhandle with a stepfather.

She went to school in Florida
and Utah (LDS-BYU)

She alleges she lived without electricity and running water but her parents said, bull! Allegedly she might have married a possible person named Blake Dain?

It’s obvious that in Arizona you have to pull a few Mormon votes to get elected to a large number of political positions. Napolitano knew and did that.
Gabby Gifford’s, told me that.

So 2024 will be a White Christian ticket.
“God Bless American”
But wait what’s a Non-Theist?

[Cal Lash]

Interesting assumption.

"So there is no basis for surprise or complaint when their representatives represent the majority of them, however deplorable, instead of toeing the party line."
Possibly the future of the planet earth might have some play.

[AzRebel]

In my lifetime there are two forces that I have witnessed which have relentlessly pushed back against the self-importance of men/women and man/womankind.

Mother Nature and Karma.

I'm talking about relentless with a capital RELENTLESS.

Our country has done much, much good and much, much bad over the years of our existence.

Mother Nature is taking names and kicking ass. And she has only just begun.

Karma is now taking names and kicking ass.

Karma, in the form of a blue/purple haired senator is going to let our democracy unravel at the seams because.........she's Karma. It's what she does.

[DoggieCombover]

Will Rodgers hit the nail squarely on the head. I have watched Democrats squabble and quarrel endlessly for decades. It's what they do.

When I worked on Capitol Hill, there was a time when the Democrats controlled both houses with much larger margins than now, and I used to say, Democrats can do anything they agree to do. But they couldn't agree on much, preferring principled, purist harikari to anything so dirty as compromise.

It's a recipe for disaster against a robotic, lobotomized Republican party bent on pleasing Trump.

I happen to agree with Sinema that whipsawing back and forth as would result without the filibuster is no good for anyone. It's bad enough with dueling executive orders every time the administration changes parties. Would you have preferred Trump and McConnell ramming their agenda down America's throat?

[Mariam Cheshire]

Sorry I voted for Sinema. Won't do it again. But it's probably too late now. Thanks for this spell-it-out column. Mariam

[toughterry]

Voting won't count - ever again.

[Levi]

Why watch the Walking Dead, when we have three walking cadavers, Biden, Pelosi and McConnell steering our ship of state on to the rocks?

[Cal Lash]

"Voting won't count-ever again." TT

No worries Levi.
The 2020 Beer Hall putsch failed.
But is only sidelined until 2024.
With help from the 2022 elections.

[AZSeahawk]

Sinema will have a very long career and is now a national name. I'm impressed she's comfortable with the heat she's taking on.

The crypto language in the big bill is garbage.

Oh, and printing at least 3.5 Trillion more dollars ought to really push asset holders way ahead of Americans not buying homes, gold or Bitcoin.

[eclecticdog]

The Progressive Caucus should stick to their guns. Sinema and Manchin will only vote for what their corporate masters tell them to, along with the rest of the roaches on the Hill.

[Cal Lash]

Are Seahawks an endangered species?
Joe Turner thought it was the Condors.
The tragic advent of professional sports in Arizona ranks right up there with
Dams and flood irrigation.
Hopefully hockey will leave Arizona.
Were out of Ice.
For future prognosis see the new film release of Dune or just read Frank Herbert's Triology.
Cal from the Salton Sea.

[Dave Parish]

If Sinema is an extremist the role, covering her rear, is thickly padded. Turbulence among ones own party still will find officials looking out for #1. Only until #2 is too deep will there be loads of problems.

[C.Cannon]

Kyrsten Sinema isn't Martha McSally. Or is she?

[Counter perspective]

Laurie Roberts' column in the AZ Republic today, "Here's what Democrats need to understand about Sen. Kyrsten Sinema," vindicates my comment above.

Also, Cal, I sympathize with your concern for the planet, but complaining about the people who deny the problem and hoping their representative views them accordingly and votes how other people deem enlightened by any means necessary is not a strategy. If it were otherwise, you would have Sinema and the Senate enacting the Green New Deal by a vote of 100-0.

[Cal Lash]

I see from the Front Pages that David Brooks is advocating 4 Trillion.
About 3 weeks ago i called Manchin and Sinema's DC offices suggesting 5 Trillion and too spend a bunch on railroads.
Of course this makes me a hypocrite as i think we should have never left the Hunter/gatherer era.
And Jared Diamond said something like "the advent of Agriculture was the beginning of the decline of man."

[Cal Lash]

Counter perspective.
It will take me a while to understand what you said. I'm a little slow.
Plus I'll try and get Roberts Column as i dont subscribe to The Arizona Republic Newspaper.
Thanks

[Cal Lash]

Meanwhile, as the Pol's duke it out in DC.
I'm reading the "Grand Obsession" by Elias Butler and Tom Myers.
The story of Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of the Grand Canyon.
The NAU mathematician professor that walked more of the Grand Canyon than any other modern human.
In the late 80's i "ran" the unmaintained Butchart trail.
This is one Republican that hopes the Democrats pass the 3.5 budget.

[claycavness]

To the wondeful Laurie Roberts: "Yes, but: The Republicaqns are evil. And Sinema is complicit."

[soleri]

Sinema is a political post-modernist. She's culturally hip, i.e., left, and politically vague. What does she really believe? It all depends on the direction of the wind and the dominant mood of a fickle electorate.

2022 is shaping up as a bloodbath for Democrats. This points out an inescapable fact of politics: citizens vote their aspirations when the times are good and their fears when the things turn dark. Joe Biden set out to show America that the system can still work, that "our best days are still ahead". But the world is a chaotic and dangerous place. Republicans get that fear is a primary human emotion. Democrats, by contrast, keep their messaging on the level of a PBS fundraiser. This works well for educated cosmopolitans and not at all for voters who sense the broad breakdown of America's social contract.

I live in a city where reality denial is a social requirement. We ignore the screaming signals of dysfunction while obsessing about pronouns and "equity". But America is not the Left Coast anymore than it's the Deep South. We are, for better or worse, a mixed bag of nuts. The current polarization - Red vs Blue - favors Republicans if only because fear is primary while hope is secondary.

Sinema might seems like an airhead given her cocktail lounge clothing and easter-egg hair colors. But she may also understand something our intelligentsia misses. While liberals seemingly won the culture war, we're still losing in a nation where resentment never goes away. The left's air of moral superiority alienates the "unwoke" who are unpersuaded by jargon and theories. The left wants an America that behaves like Sweden but without the homogeneity and social discipline. This is a fantasy that no amount of wishful thinking can cure.

[Cal Lash]

Counter perspective you just got another supporter. Laurie Roberts has been joined by Bill Maher.
But:
There really isnt much difference between 3.1 and 1.3 Trillion.
So
Just take it out of the
2022 Military budget.
Do we really need more nuclear submarines to protect us from Communist Cuba.
National corporations like Big AG and Pharmaceuticals are eagerly standing by to sell there products to the commies.
Just think. Hybrid Monsanto sugar cane.

[Cal Lash]

Then Ja Han Jones said, Sinema is not a serious poltican, but an indecisive marketer

[Azrebel]

“Hey republicans, it really is time to STOP THE STUPID.”

I’m finding that phrase resonates well with Democrats, independents and sane republicans.

Maybe use it instead of the lamest slogan ever invented by man, “build back better”.

[claycavness]

Sinema: An amoral figure in a sin and hate-ridden landscape.

[AzRebel]

Dems 32% of AZ voters
Independents 32.2% of AZ voters
Sane republicans 8.5% of AZ voters

If 72.7 % of AZ voters can't wrestle control away from the CRAZIES, then AZ deserves what it gets.

[DoggieCombover]

Except control of the legislature is not a statewide contest. Watch Republicans continue to strive to gerrymander the legislative districts and keep control. It's worked for decades.

[claycavness]

In the absence of
trump we have Sinema. Both are mentaly ill.