PrintDemocrats beclown themselves after Sinema jumps ship
Democrats have been oozing assurance that Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's exit from the Democrat party to become an independent will have no effect whatsoever on the Democrat-controlled Senate. Sinema will keep her committee assignments and some reports say will continue to caucus with Democrats and certainly will vote with Democrats 93% of the time.
"Sinema’s departure is more show than substance," read the headline from CNN senior contributor and former top Obama political operative, David Axelrod.
Meanwhile, according to a Fox News headline:
Schumer says Sinema flip won’t affect Dem control of the Senate, subpoena power intact
It's a nothingburger, they claim. So the only reason she jumped ship was ... she jumped ship. Some Arizona thing or something.
Out in the trenches, though, particularly at Twitter, the base didn't take it well.
Here's one loud and vocal leftist who has 1.1 million followers:
IF YOU RAN AS A DEMOCRAT, AND VOTERS ELECTED YOU AS A DEMOCRAT, YOU SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO SWITCH PARTY JUST BECAUSE YOU FEEL LIKE IT
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!тШоя╕П (@mmpadellan) December 9, 2022
He got 71,400 "likes" for that one, and he made a string of increasingly enraged tweets as he went on.
This one went the "threat to democracy route":
MSNBC guest Danielle Moodie-Mills (@DeeTwoCents): @SenatorSinema "is a thorn in the side of our democracy ... I find her really problematic. Particularly at the time that we have a Republican Party, a really violent, volatile party that's pushing our democracy to the brink" pic.twitter.com/1dIJWUvFcT
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 10, 2022
...like they always do. Check the bingo card.
Others, meanwhile, went Fox and grapes on the matter, pointing out that Sinema had low poll numbers and by implication wasn't worth keeping:
When she said going indie was the natural trajectory of her career, I guess this is what she meant. https://t.co/U6VrWUoFkk
— Matthew Shugart ЁЯХО ЁЯЗоЁЯЗ▒ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗжЁЯЗ╣ЁЯЗ╝ (@laderafrutal) December 9, 2022
Meanwhile, others still responded in more concrete ways than just weeks against Sinema and this claimed nothingburger:
Overpaid “progressive”dunderheads don’t realize that their dropping Sinema helps her.
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) December 10, 2022
Top progressive firm drops Sinema as a client - POLITICO https://t.co/foqPQJKIxz
There also were reports of death threats:
Kyrsten Sinema getting incessant death threats for leaving the Democrats probably just makes her even more happy that she left the Democrats.
— Lavern Spicer ЁЯЗ║ЁЯЗ╕ (@lavern_spicer) December 9, 2022
So one the one hand, it's nothing to see here, according to the Democrats at the top of the heap, and other the other hand, the Democrat base is boiling mad, yanking contracts, and issuing death threats.
A nothingburger? Doesn't sound like it.
The whole picture is a contradiction. Either the Democrat leadership is out of touch with its base, or the Democrat leadership is pretending nothing bad is happening in its bid to save face. The base is raging and at least some Republicans are snickering. The press of course isn't going to pick up on this let alone ask some probing questions about why there are two strains of thought going on that contradict one another, they're the same mouthpieces who repeat all Democrat leadership talking points and pretend nothing else is happening.
But it does show that the Democrats don't know what they are doing these days. Putting on a happy face when Sinema has just thrown a rock into the Democrat punchbowl is pretty sorry stuff. In short, the Democrats are beclowning themselves.
